Instruments in the Redeemer's Hands: People in Need of Change Helping People in Need of Change

by Paul David Tripp

is, Whose agenda drives our confrontation?

four steps in the confrontation process, with one real life situation in mind.

story, they are not in it!

This first step calls me to forsake my agenda and take up the Lord’s.

examine their hearts.

behavior is shaped by our heart’s response to the situation.

self-excusing arguments and self-atoning lies and help people, maybe for the first time, to see that their behavior reveals more about their own hearts than it does about the difficulties of their situations.

motives—or idols—of the heart.

At some point Jim needs to confess that he has been living for his own glory rather than the Lord’s. Lasting change takes place when people are not only shocked by the evil in their world, but by the degree to which they have lived as glory thieves,

demanding for themselves what belongs only to the Lord.

“For whose glory are you living?”

people who have been affected by their sins and seek their forgiveness. We should lead them to pray, to admit their sin, and to seek God’s forgiveness and help.

3. Commitment Consideration and confession make up the “put off” aspect of the confrontation process (see Eph. 4:22–24). Commitment is the first step of the “put on” phase of repentance. Questions to ask here might include, “Where is God specifically calling this person to radical new ways of living and thinking? What biblical desires would God want to control Jim’s heart as he deals with his church relationships and his job? In what new ways is God calling him to love and serve others? What steps of restitution is God calling Jim to make? What new habits should he insert into his daily routines? Is he committed to these things?” Don’t soften God’s call for concrete commitments of heart and life. People’s commitments should be God-ward and not simply horizontal bargains with the goal of an easier, better life. God is worthy of their worship even if their circumstances remain the same. If the confessed sin was against God, the commitments must be made to him as well. If the person has lived for her own glory, a new way of living must be rooted in a zeal for God’s glory and a resolve to live for him. Biblical commitment runs deeper than learning the things that have been destructive to me, and doing the things that will make them better. “What’s in it for me” commitments are essentially old idolatries in a new form. In both the Old and New Testaments, God repudiates this kind of surface commitment. He is unwilling to settle for anything less than our hearts. (See Isa. 1:10–2...