You Can Change
Do you like change?
I remember a schoolteacher of ours used to always say, “A change is as good as a holiday.” I’d prefer a holiday, to be honest! Although as a kid, I used to get restless quickly and want to change my room around often. I think every time my folks came in, the bed, table, and everything else were shuffled around! Some of us like change; we get restless when things don’t change. Others don’t like change. We just want to settle into our lives and leave things be.
Jesus Offers Real Change
But I want to remind us over the next few weeks that Jesus always offered people change if they were willing to grab hold of it. And it was never a superficial change. Too many of us embrace a sort of superficial religious change—like changing our room around. We just take the existing parts of our life and add a bit of Jesus to them. But that’s not really change at all!
Jesus came to get you out of your old room and put you into a new one! Or, to use some biblical imagery, to take away your heart of stone and give you a new heart.
Transformation Begins Here
Many of you listening can probably tell a story of encountering Jesus and being changed in a wonderful way! Changed because, when you surrendered to Him, you were made new! Born again! Your burdens lifted, your heart lighter and filled with His joy and His peace! I would love for you to share your testimonies in the comments on my website or the YouTube video where you’re watching this.
But others among us resist change, and resist Jesus. God reaches out to us and reveals Himself, but we back away! We keep Him at a distance, so that things can just go on as before.
I believe that Jesus still changes lives today. I have seen Him change lives today. And my prayer is that the stories we explore in the next few weeks will help us to encounter Him, quit resisting Him, and walk away changed by Him.
Ready for Change?
The question is, are you ready for change, friends? Are you open to change? Do you want to see the way things are become the way things were? Don’t be content with the way things are. Jesus offers the best type of change—which might be painful, but is always good for us.
Paul said this in Romans 12:2: “Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.”
I pray that you will come to God today with an openness, a readiness to be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that your testimony might be one of wonderful change at the hands of Jesus.
