Change Was Designed by God for Our Good
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Change. It’s an inevitable part of life. Sometimes change rips our feet out from underneath us. Other times, we enforce a change in our own lives. Some changes we have control over, and other changes hit like a tsunami. There is a healthy way to deal with change, both in making change and coping with unwanted change.
This is perhaps my favorite five verses of the Bible. God initiates change, yet never changes Himself. His is always working, always with us, yet He, Himself, remains invisible to us here on earth.
A gift initiates change. Jesus is the Greatest Gift. God made a way for us to come to Him through His Son, and when we accept His gift, we are forever changed. It’s nothing we do, but everything He has done to rescue us. Jesus didn’t just pop onto the pages of the New Testament, He’s been with God since the beginning. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Three in One since the start. God is unchanging, but His presence in our lives changes us. Paul wrote to the Ephesians:
God knew us before we were born. He knit us in our mother’s womb, unique and wonderful as we are. Christ Jesus died for us, specifically and individually, before we were born. He goes behind us, is always with us, and paves the way before us. He is all-knowing and everywhere all of the time, yet He gives us the free will to choose change. Our lives are meant to bring glory back to Him. When we are changed, it reflects out into the atmosphere around us, causing others to choose change, too. Paul wrote:
God doesn’t change, but we do. He has a plan for our lives, specific and unique to who we are. Through Christ Jesus, we are able to live a life beyond our imagination, rich and satisfying. Not by the standards of worldly wealth and fame, but by the standard of Love, Himself. Change isn’t easy. Even good changes are hard to adjust and adapt to. But we can trust God has the best in mind for us.
The day Christ Jesus died on the cross, the curtain in the temple which separated humans from the presence of God was torn in two, from top to bottom. The curtain was so massive it could not have been done by human effort. In Christ, we have the power to grow, change, and accomplish things we could never do in our own human efforts. But with the power of the Holy Spirit of God living in us, we can become powerful conduits of change in our communities and beyond – all for the glory of God.
The hope we have is in Jesus. A hope which is strong and trustworthy. A hope that anchors our souls to the Truth, and leads us into the presence of God. Change can be really tough to endure, but as Paul wrote to the Corinthians, “We live by believing and not seeing” (2 Corinthians 5:7).
We can trust God through the changes. His love for us is enough to conquer anything and everything.
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Evidence God Is at Work in Our Lives
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