Galkin Evangelistic Ministries -More and More Like You

Have you ever been frustrated or even depressed about a sin or sins in your life that you just can't seem to get rid of? Or what about an area of weakness that you are very bothered and anxious about because you continue to fail over and over. So now you begin to drift between being frustrated, anxious, or depressed concerning those weaknesses or sins you have been doing. To make matters worse, there are days when you are exited because you've been doing good and haven't messed up or failed. Then the moment comes when you fail and sin again and immediately you get frustrated and anxious and the whole cycle starts over. I write the above paragraph because those have been the questions and thoughts that have been swirling through my head this semester as I have traveled now for a year and a half on the Galkin Team. God has been doing a great work in my life this semester to reveal sins and weaknesses specifically in the area of pleasing people. I am so driven to please people and to fear what they think of me. I have been keenly aware of this problem and every time it happened I would get frustrated or even depressed. My prayers were, "Lord please help me to stop doing this! Please help me to stop fearing man." A combination of a conversation with my Dad and studying Romans 12 really began to open my eyes to truth. One of the things my Dad said to me was, "You can never change what you do until you let God change who you are." Paul says in Romans 12:2 : "be transformed by the renewing of your mind." My thinking needed to change. I was focused on stopping what I was doing wrong, rather then begging God to change who I was. So I began to change my prayers from, "Lord, please help me to stop doing this sin" to "Lord, please change who I am in the area of pleasing people." I also began to get desperate about ways of renewing my mind in the Word every day. Instead of getting frustrated and anxious when I fail I am learning to get earnest about my sin and remind myself that God loves me and wants to change me to be more and more like Him. I sin every day, therefore I need Jesus every day and the truths of the gospel! One of the songs on the new Galkin CD called Consider Him has been a great joy to me this semester in dealing with my sin. Please listen to the words carefully. The song says, "Lord change my heart from deep within, purify me once again. Renew my mind to love your truth, make me more and more like you." -Jared Mitchell