“I want to stop smoking, but I’m not ready yet,” “I just wish I had the guts to get a divorce,” or “This job is killing me – I’ve got to get out of this place.” These were posed in a 2013 Psychology Today Magazine article as examples of dreams that can be attained through a 72 hour transformative programme. You can, according to the article, overcome ‘emotional inertia’—the gap between the idea of change and the action, if you but follow a few simple steps: 1. Take a few days to plan your 72 hour plan—writing out the pros and cons, 2. Carry out your 72 hour plan in 3 easy 24 hour sections—writing down how you feel 3 times a day, and 3. Carry on with the plan if you think the 72 hour experiment is working. Forgive my cynicism, but that, according to my calculations is 72+72+an unknown number of hours. But even if he had called it ‘144+hours to freedom’ I still wouldn’t have bought it. Transformation must be seen in terms holiness. Only God is truly holy, and we are transferred into a state of holiness when we are baptised for the forgiveness of our sins. Thus, begins our journey to become in our hearts and actions that which has been gifted to us—Holiness. “Without holiness,” the Hebrews writer says, “no one will see the Lord” (Heb.12:14). Bad habits must be defined by their impact on your faith, relationships must be deliberately invested in for the spiritual growth of all parties concerned (God hates divorce), and work, though not a guarantee of happiness, is a means of bringing glory to God.
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