Change

I have been pondering change recently. I have listened to people making New Year Resolutions and their expectations. I am not perfect, as anyone who knows me will tell you, and one of the struggles I have, which may be familiar to you, is seeing the speck in my brother’s eye which feels very much like a plank to me. How do I deal with it?

As the body of Christ, we are supposed to get along with one another and love one another, but sometimes that is so hard to do.

I love the story about the submarine that encounters something on its radar which appears to be on a collision course with it. They establish radio contact, and the submarine orders it to divert its course to avoid a collision. It replies that the submarine should instead divert its course to avoid collision. After a few rounds of back-and-forth, and with the submarine eventually making a few threats, the punchline has the other party saying, “I’m a lighthouse!”

I can want you to change, and can even pray for you to change, but find we are still having strife. This is because the only person I have the power to change is me. Life can be so difficult, until we realise that.

Once I have accepted that, I will need prayer for the situation to change. I will need Father God. I will need Jesus. And I will need to change myself. We live in a world that is explaining everyone around needs to accept me as I am, and that I will not change. It is far easier to say that I can only change myself. I cannot change you. You may need to change, but that is your walk and not mine.

What a hard truth this is to learn! Jesus was so helpful in John 8:32. “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

Can I encourage you today to look at the areas in your life you struggle with and ask Father to help you change? It might not be your relationships with others. It might be a totally different area.   Just ask. Father loves to listen to you, and He wants to be in relationship with you.