God is Sneaky

This is more of a ‘have you ever felt like this’ article rather than a BIG QUESTION I am struggling with though I do feel that it could start off some interesting stuff about how God affects our lives/influences us in a real way…

So, enough ‘prep’ and here is the real thing.

Has anyone ever found that God has sneakily changed your mind about stuff when you didn’t even want to change your mind?

I have

Especially about those really fun things that _good christians_ aren’t meant to do – like getting drunk, snogging random (inappropriate?) people, smoking… need I go on?

I have

Let me give you an example: at age 17 – very definitely a committed christian – I regularly went out and got really drunk with all my friends (one other of whom was a christian). The way I saw it was – I was ‘being real’ with them and being’one of them’ but really, I was just doing what I wanted to do and having lots of fun. (This did not stop me having a relationship with God where I was striving to do what He wanted etc) This may have led to lots of unfortunate things (or not) but this is not my point….

My point is that, at some point around 18/19ish, God managed to convince me that maybe this might be something I should at least look at. And the weird thing was – I didn’t resent him for making me think like this – I actually agreed.

What I’m getting at is – God somehow changed the way that I thought about the whole thing so convincingly that I actually believed him… I had always thought that if ‘God stopped me having fun’ I would put up with it, but not necessarily agree.

(Please note at this point that some of this particular change was also due to growing up a bit but let’s leave that as another aside…)

So – what do you think? Not about getting drunk etc but about how God influences us and how he moulds us to be more like him.

How do we know what is HIM and what is socialisation/growing up/suppressing ourselves/christian culture?????

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10 Comments

  1. I don’t think I have an answer to that question but I know that similar stuff has happened to me. Have realized that I’ve changed my mind, sometimes quite extremely, without realising. It’s probably the only way God can do things with my brain on some issues though cos I’m very stubborn…

  2. God did this to me about sex. I realised one day I really understood _why_ God wants us to only have sex with one person. Not why in terms of knowledge, but I actually _understood_.

  3. I’m not sure He has had any major effect on the way I think directly. But I have been influenced by people around me and that could have been His doing.

    I guess it’s possible that he does it all the time, even when we feel it us us making the decisions. Having said that I think a lot is due to us maturing as people.

    It’s a thought provoking article but begs the question that if He can do this why has He made it hard for me to believe/follow Him.

  4. Thanks for the comment.

    I feel like there is some level to having to be open to God in order for him to be ‘sneakily’ able to do this stuff. And it is a gradual process. And you don’t see it coming….

    Article author

  5. > How do we know what is HIM and what is socialisation/growing up/suppressing ourselves/christian culture?????

    I don’t think there’s much reason to distinguish, if the result is the “right” one.

    I mean, God is the one who is *using* the other things to influence us, when they do.

    Growing up, in the right way, is part of becoming more godly, I think.

    Of course, as someone has rightly pointed out, God doesn’t always do this, nor always straight away. He certainly doesn’t always take away temptation.

  6. Yes, in my experience he’s very sneaky. After my degree I had a choice between doing research straight away, doing a Masters in the Middle East, or working for a church for a year. I secretly didn’t want to work for the church, I think, and I decided to be big and heroic by going for the Middle East option. So I turned the research down. Straight afterwards, I found out that the Masters basically wasn’t available… so guess where I ended up…

  7. lol dude i so got you there. sneakness of god is ace! he can change my mind when ever he wants –
    please alter it –
    the way i treat my girlfriend
    my money
    my health
    my private time
    i am getting fed up of my sexual sin help me please

  8. Hi Anon,

    I’m writing this much later so you probably won’t read this.

    Just wanted to say I understand that feeling and God can change us – it just happens a lot slower than we want.

    Don’t give up on him.

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