CHANGE

(devotional for Sunday, 7/1/12)

We all know how hard change can be. Just deciding whether or not to change can create stress.  Even simple little things like trying a new hairstyle or choosing a new lipstick color can be difficult for some women.  Some choices affect our lives in a more dramatic way, such as choosing a different path to take with a new job, or even moving to a new community.  Other changes are more internal, like altering how we feel or think about things, or changing our behaviors. Many people spend years in counseling working on transitions.  Change can be quite difficult. 

 

Sometimes it takes being too uncomfortable NOT changing to motivate us to choose something different.  Have you ever gotten something in your shoe that didn't belong there while you were walking?  If it is just a little wrinkle in your sock sometimes you can just ignore it.  But if you are walking for a very long time, even that wrinkle can become very uncomfortable.  It can even cause a blister if you don't stop long enough to straighten out the sock.  Sometimes when you walk in sand, it can work it's way between your toes.  Perhaps at first you just wiggle your toes around, trying to get it to shift so it isn't so irritating. But what if it is a rock in your shoe, and it is underneath the arch of your foot while you are walking along a sidewalk?  There is a pretty good chance that even if you try to get that rock to shift, it will be too uncomfortable to continue walking until you remove it.  Sometimes life situations are much like that.  Unless we become very uncomfortable, we find it easier to ignore the situation instead of choosing something different, even when we know it would be healthier to change.

As hard as it is for us to change, we can be confident that our God never changes.  And this never-changing God of ours can give us the awesome gift of changes in our lives, if only we would remember to ask for his help and for his will to be done.  We have to realize that we cannot do it ourselves, but God can.

Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows. James 1:17 NIV

The greatest change will come at the end of our lives, and we won't even ask for it.  We only have to remain faithful, which is done by his power also.

Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed— in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed.  I Corinthians 15:51-52 NIV

Dear heavenly Father, we thank you for being ever constant in an ever changing world.  Please help us to see where we need to change, to let go of trying to do it ourselves, and to allow you to work your amazing power in our lives as we grow and change. For your glory, in Jesus' name, Amen.

written by Jan Andersen