{"id":7762,"date":"2016-01-11T07:00:15","date_gmt":"2016-01-11T12:00:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/?p=7762"},"modified":"2015-12-22T16:13:12","modified_gmt":"2015-12-22T21:13:12","slug":"what-it-takes-to-make-lasting-change","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/2016\/01\/what-it-takes-to-make-lasting-change.html","title":{"rendered":"What It Takes to Make Lasting Change"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/files\/2014\/05\/ID-100105046.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-6286\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/258\/2014\/05\/ID-100105046-199x300.jpg\" alt=\"Teen girl\" width=\"199\" height=\"300\" \/><\/a>Through years of failed change\u00a0attempts, the road of self-effort and control has not taken most of us where we\u00a0wanted to go. Proverbs 14:12 tells us, \u201cBefore every man there lies a wide and pleasant road that seems right but ends in death\u201d (TLB). To stay on this road is to choose further heartache and destruction. Consequently, we must be willing to admit that our lives have spun out of control. Self-control and our forms of self-treatment have failed us and must be abandoned.<\/p>\n<p>Although we are limited by our weaknesses, God is not. By acknowledging that He alone has the power to change the course of our lives, we surrender to Him our powerlessness and begin the process of spiritual renewal. Only when we relinquish our control to God does He release His supernatural power in our lives, and it is only through His power that we can be \u201ctransformed by the renewing of our minds\u201d (Romans 12:2).<\/p>\n<p><em>Every limitation we have can be seen as an invitation from God to do for us what we cannot do for ourselves.<\/em> When we surrender, we don\u2019t just give up or play dead or wait for God to fix us. Instead, we become active participants with God in making a new path of hope toward healing. We drop our guard and give up our solitary and isolated efforts to heal. We sincerely and humbly reach out to others who can help us restore our lives to spiritual vitality.<\/p>\n<p>Surrender is not passivity, nor is it resignation. Its motion requires an active and conscious turning towards God though others, reflecting our willingness to submit to His power and share our truth with others.<\/p>\n<p>Surrender means:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>humbling ourselves before the God of the universe<\/li>\n<li>admitting that God is all powerful and releasing our struggles to Him<\/li>\n<li>refusing to escape into the old patterns, habits, and attitudes that continue to distract us and add to the destruction of our lives<\/li>\n<li>no longer saying, \u201cI can handle this myself.\u201d<\/li>\n<li>submitting to God\u2019s way of doing things even when we don\u2019t understand<\/li>\n<li>getting past our pain and fear and clinging to our hope in God and His love for us<\/li>\n<li>setting aside our human understanding and becoming childlike, and acknowledging we have no answers that work<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Surrender allows you to grow as you submit to God\u2019s authority. In order to submit, you must trust that God has good things for you and that His plans and purposes far outweigh what you bring to the table.<\/p>\n<p>Thus, a necessary step to make real change\u00a0is to acknowledge your incredible need for God to take the reigns. If you don\u2019t do this, you are doomed to continue to try every new scheme that offers you false hope and false security. But if you can grasp this surrender concept and implement it, you can be free from your addictions\/obsessions\u00a0and find a new life you never dreamed could be so great. But understand, before you can have that life, you must surrender the one you have.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Through years of failed change\u00a0attempts, the road of self-effort and control has not taken most of us where we\u00a0wanted to go. Proverbs 14:12 tells us, \u201cBefore every man there lies a wide and pleasant road that seems right but ends in death\u201d (TLB). To stay on this road is to choose further heartache and destruction.&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":419,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[916],"tags":[166,15,1596],"class_list":["post-7762","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-god-relationship","tag-addiction","tag-change","tag-surrender"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>What It Takes to Make Lasting Change<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/2016\/01\/what-it-takes-to-make-lasting-change.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"What It Takes to Make Lasting Change\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Through years of failed change\u00a0attempts, the road of self-effort and control has not taken most of us where we\u00a0wanted to go. Proverbs 14:12 tells us, \u201cBefore every man there lies a wide and pleasant road that seems right but ends in death\u201d (TLB). To stay on this road is to choose further heartache and destruction.&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/2016\/01\/what-it-takes-to-make-lasting-change.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Doing Life Together\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/drlindamintle\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-01-11T12:00:15+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2015-12-22T21:13:12+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/files\/2014\/05\/ID-100105046-199x300.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Linda Mintle\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@drlindamintle\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"What It Takes to Make Lasting Change","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/2016\/01\/what-it-takes-to-make-lasting-change.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"What It Takes to Make Lasting Change","og_description":"Through years of failed change\u00a0attempts, the road of self-effort and control has not taken most of us where we\u00a0wanted to go. 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Dr. Linda\u2019s fun personality and expertise comes through whether she\u2019s helping her audience stress less or make peace with their thighs! Dr. Linda has her Ph.D. in Urban Health and Clinical Psychology and is a national expert on mental health. She has specialized in the treatment of eating disorders, anxiety, depression and pain management. With 30 years of clinical experience working with couples, families and individuals, she brings her common-sense approach to people who want to live in positive mental health. Dr. Linda is also a bestselling author with 21 book titles to her credit, a radio host of the Dr. Linda Mintle show, professor, national speaker, winner of the Mom\u2019s Choice Award, a national news consultant, featured writer for Beliefnet and hosts her own website. Her academic appointments keep her abreast of current research in her areas of expertise. Her media experience includes seven years as the resident expert for ABC Family\u2019s Living the Life television show and regular appearances on network television and radio. It is often said that being with Dr. Linda is like having coffee with a friend. She makes the complicated issues of relationships and mental health easy to understand and applicable to everyday living. The ease she has with people, coupled with her clinical training and experience makes her a sought-after speaker on college campuses, conferences and special events. Whether she is doing a TV skit with Tim Conway or discussing teen violence with Queen Latifa, Dr. Linda will entertain, educate and integrate faith and mental health in everyday living. 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