Doing things Different; In
the Word 4-18-16
Anyone who really knows me
will agree that I am a ‘creature of habit’ type person. I do things by rote a
lot and that means I do not always see the beautiful new things going on around
me. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t walk through life with blinders on, but I do
pretty much follow a pattern to my days. It is what works for me; most of the
time. Years back I took a personality test that told me I was a
sanguine/melancholy; according to the outline it means I am a person who loves
to live spur of the moment but also I am a person who likes to plan everything
out in detail. I can tell you both sides are true!
I like to live my base by
deign. I follow the ‘to do list’ the planners, the whole what I am supposed to
do. Sometimes though I feel like stepping outside the box and out of my comfort zone, unfortunately it
is not always me who chooses when I have to do this. When God changes my path,
or rather the one I think I am to be on, and shows me the way He wants me to
walk I do not always keep a stiff upper lip… in fact I tend to accept things on
the outside more than on the inside until I take some time with Him to sort
things out. Once I have done that it is much easier to accept the things I
cannot change, and to see the difference between that and things in which I can
indeed change and how to go about it.
Jesus was in the temple when
I man who needed healing came up to him. The religious leaders watched him from
near by to see if he would break their laws not to work on the Sabbath and heal
the man. Matthew 12:9-13
When He knew their hearts
and minds, being that He is God, Jesus reminded them that it is okay to do good
on the day and then healed him.
Sometimes we can get all
caught up in doing what we think is the right thing and get lost in the good
that God wants us to do.
And now, just as
you accepted Christ Jesus as your Lord, you must continue to follow him. 7 Let your roots
grow down into him, and let your lives be built on him. Then your faith will
grow strong in the truth you were taught, and you will overflow with
thankfulness.
8 Don’t let anyone
capture you with empty philosophies and high-sounding nonsense that come from
human thinking and from the spiritual powers[a] of this world,
rather than from Christ. 9 For in Christ
lives all the fullness of God in a human body.[b]10 So you also are
complete through your union with Christ, who is the head over every ruler and
authority. Colossians 3:6-10
When we focus on God, not on
the plans or desires of men but follow after the direction that Jesus has given
us then we will know God is in all that we do. Sometimes we have to follow the
leaders we have been placed behind but if God is with us then we will be
walking in the path He laid out, even if it seems to us that it may be awkward
at times.
Personally I greatly dislike
change. Because of the afore mentioned personality traits I love to plan things
out, and am usually okay with a spur of the moment change but if it is someone
else who has uprooted the area that needs to change, I do not always like it.
When I change my plans it is
one thing; when someone else changes them it sometimes disrupts my process.
Ah, but ‘they’ say ‘change
is good’!
In
a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall
sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.
1 Coriinthians15:52
When
put that way, I can handle change… I think. This change will be permanent
change, but what about the other things? God changes our heart according to
When I
was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child:
but when I became a man, I put away childish things.1 Corinthians 12:11
I
come to the conclusion that change must happen in me in order for me to grow
more like Jesus; since the purpose of my life is indeed to be like Him; this is
my heart’s desire and I choose to allow change to effect me in a good way.
So,
today as I write this, and study out the Word I am realizing that I must accept
change, if not embrace it as an important part of my Christian growth. If I
were to avoid change all together would I not become stagnant as a pond left
alone in the hot summer months?
As we realize the need for
change our heart begins the softening change that it takes to accept the
changes in our lives. It would be easy to be tough, and not accept changes and
end up in the wrong place in the end. As a child we are told not to cry, to be
tough, strong and other such things when the world gets crazy around us; but
God wipes away the tears we shed instead of chastising us he holds us and
comforts us. It is a contrast but we must be as those little children,
believing, ready to change in an instant, in order to be shaped into the man or
woman of God He has intended for us to become.
So if you get up tomorrow
and go off to work and find out that things are in different places, or that your
boss has changed how she does things, just embrace it. Something good is bound
to happen when things begin to change.
Dear Heavenly Father, help
us to accept the things we know have to change. Give us strength to change the
things we do not think we can change, and push us on through the things that
are changing around us to help us to reach the point that You want us to end
in, in Jesus’ name, amen,
Suggested readings: 1
Corinthians 13:1-13, Ephesians 4:1-32, and 1 Peter 3:1-22