Lessons Seven and Eight: How People Change

The “How People Change” study by Timothy S. Lane and Paul David Tripp “is not one that comes naturally for us. It’s hard for us to connect the ways we think, feel, and act in the midst of struggle with our ultimate destination of life in heaven with Christ. It is a work of the Spirit in our lives. But when we learn how to respond to that work, the impact on our lives is enormous.” These videos are a part of a CtK Study and are shared for participants who missed the earlier sessions.

Lesson 7 – THORNS 1 – What Entangles You?

Big Question: How do I typically respond to the circumstances and relationships God has placed in my life right now? What happens as a result?

Video (26 mins)

Discuss

• Luke 6:43-46
• Eph 4:17-26

Thorn Bush reactions to difficulty:

1. Deny, avoid, escape
2. Magnify, Expand, and catastrophize
3. Become prickly and hypersensitive
4. Return evil for evil
5. Bogged down, paralyzed, captured
6. Self-excusing, self-righteousness

Fruit Tree reactions to difficulty:

1. Face reality
2. Respond with appropriate intensity
3. Be alert
4. Constructive activity
5. Remember that God comforts us with his presence and power and calls us to trust him.
6. Remember that God calls us to obey and promises to bless us as we do.

In good and bad circumstances, we must ask, “What has God called me to do, and what has he provided in Christ to enable me to do it?”

Lesson 8 – THORNS 2 – Why Do You Get Entangled?

Big Question: What has captured your heart? What cravings, desires, and beliefs rule your heart, producing ungodly reactions?

Video (21 mins)

Discuss

Romans 1:18-25

• Your heart is the control system of your personhood…the causal center of the human being…the steering wheel of the human being.
• You are – by your very nature – a worshiper.
• Worship is an identity before it is an activity.
• Worship: Something is always laying claim to the rulership of your heart. Your heart is always living for something.
• We behave in wrong ways because God has been replaced.

Principle: Whatever rules the heart will exercise inescapable influence over your behavior.

James 4:1: What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you?

Reality: When you are shaken by the issues of life, what comes out of you is what was already in you.

• God intends for the shaking issues of life to reveal what is in us.

Our role: Trace the fruit (behaviors) down to the root issues of the heart.

Make It Real

Answer the following questions and look for common themes:

• What things tend to function as replacements for God in my life?
  • What is my greatest nightmare? What do I worry about the most?
  • What, if I failed or lost it, would cause me to feel that I did not even want to live? What keeps me going?
  • What do I rely on or comfort myself with when things go bad or get difficult?
  • What do I think most easily about? What does my mind go to when I am free? What preoccupies me?
  • What unanswered prayer would make me seriously think about turning away from God?
  • What makes me feel the most self-worth? What am I proudest of?
  • What do I really want and expect out of life? What would really make me happy?

Email Liza to learn more or join the group that is meeting two Sundays a month during the Summer 2024. Click here for link to the blog for earlier sessions.

The “How People Change” study guide is written by Timothy S. Lane and Dr. Paul David Tripp who is a pastor, international event speaker, and a best-selling and award-winning author. With more than 30 books and video series on Christian living, Paul’s driving passion is to connect the transforming power of Jesus Christ to everyday life. Click here to view videos and podcasts featuring Dr. Tripp. 

Click here for the How People Change series of blogs.