"Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.” Prov 4:23
How you are on the inside will dictate how you are on the outside. We all want to be better, to do a good job and to be successful. There are lots of resources, books, sermons and mentors who try to help us be better. But these things will never be able to bring about any change unless there is a change at the centre of who we are.
The bible is really clear that the source of who we are is not found in what we do but rather who we are. Our heart is the place from which everything else flows. Jesus said, " For out of the heart come evil thoughts—murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander. These are what defile a person;” (Matt. 15:19-20a). If you try to change who you are by what you do or from the outside in, you will never succeed and will experience only failure and frustration.
The beauty of the message of Jesus is that He does not come to try and change who we are on the outside but to transform us from the inside out. As a believer in Jesus, God lives in you - His Holy Spirit is within you to change your heart and it is from this core of your being that meaningful, lasting external change comes.
Today, don’t try to live from the outside-in but rather seek God, be filled with Him, allow Him to fill you and trust in His grace and love to change you from the inside out.