Change

Do we want change in our lives? A Christian man who has almost reached his sixtieth birthday was sharing how he faces enormous change in a few months time. He’s worked from home for years, running a business, but now his wife is retiring from her career as a headmistress and will soon be with him every day. He’s wondering how he’ll adapt. She’s very different to him.

Then he thought of how the Bible is unchanging, but speaks of change. God brought change when He created the universe out of chaos. Adam and Eve brought change when they sinned against God’s commandment, and the result was death and decay. The Israelites went through change in the great exodus from Egypt. There were times of change in the Promised Land as the people strayed from God’s ways, but so many times God raised up leaders who changed things back to a rightful order. And finally Jesus came to bring change and conquer sin and death.

As Christians we must be open to change in our lives. ‘Don’t be shaped by this world; instead be changed by a new way of thinking’ (Romans 12:2). We have a choice. We can face up to change in our lives and glorify God in it, finding His purposes and fulfilling them, or we can do nothing, and drift into a process of decay.

‘There’s a time for everything, and everything on earth has its special season.
There’s a time to be born and a time to die.
There’s a time to plant and a time to pull up plants.
There’s a time to kill and a time to heal.
There’s a time to destroy and a time to build.
There’s a time to cry and a time to laugh.
There’s a time to be sad and a time to dance.
There’s a time to throw away stones and a time to gather them.
There’s a time to hug and a time not to hug.
There’s a time to look for something and a time to stop looking for it.
There’s a time to keep things and a time to throw things away.
There’s a time to tear apart and a time to sew together.
There’s a time to be silent and a time to speak.
There’s a time to love and a time to hate.
There’s a time for war and a time for peace’ (Ecclesiastes 3:1-8).

Prayer: Dear heavenly Father, please help us to face change in our lives and find our destiny in Your purposes for our lives. Help us to discern and understand what is happening all around us and find our role in bringing about change for good in our sphere of influence, in Jesus’ name, Amen.