Transformed by Personal Study

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Study involves curiosity about anything and everything. I wonder why that works that way? How did they come up with that? The real goal, however, is more than knowledge of more facts. The ability to continually learn in any situation transforms us into a more loving person.

Transformation by Study

We cannot continue following Jesus without ongoing repentance, a change of mind.  Now, here’s the problem.  We can’t change our thinking on our own.  We know what we know.  We don’t know what we don’t know.  When left to ourselves we think we are right.  We receive information and sift it through our understandings, which are based on our experiences.  We find it mystifying that someone else wouldn’t see it our way.  If left to ourselves, we cannot change what we think once we have made up our minds that we are right.  So how do we repent?  Only God can move us to repentance.  The only thing we can do is practice the app of study by staying open to new information and asking God to invade our thoughts.

The spiritual app of study invites us to become a lifelong learner.  One of the major benefits is that this helps us stay connected with others even when we strongly disagree with them.  We remain open to listen and learn because we are constantly aware that our current views may be wrong.  This attitude helps us to be a more loving person. 

Bruce Humphrey, “Transformation by Personal Study,” July 10/11, 2010