How Have You Changed?
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the
new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! – 2 Corinthians 5:17
Most of us don’t like change, do we? Oh, we say we
like to try new things but mostly we simply want to stay in our own little
worlds, with our family, friends and toys. We want an easy life without static
or drama.
Except we do change when the Holy Spirit comes to
dwell within us. We become a different person. Or we should. It’s one of the
signs that we are truly saved.
God doesn’t want us to always be the same. He wants us
to continually grow closer to Him. His goal is that we will become more like
Christ and less like the world. He wants us to give up ourselves to become the
people He created us to be.
And we resist. Again and again we resist. Because we
want to control our own lives. We want to do what we want to do, when we want
to do it. We want God when it comes to the hard stuff, the things we can’t
control, things like cancer and wayward children and unexpected job loss. But
the rest we want to control ourselves.
God doesn’t work that way. Sometimes He will break us
in order to mold us into a new creation dedicated to serving Him. It doesn’t
have to be like that, of course. God sends us signals, directions, guidelines.
It’s when he’s trying to get our attention and we ignore Him that things can
get bad quickly.
God doesn’t want us to be comfortable and content with
where we are. We are all called to service. We are all called to spread His
message of love and hope. We can’t do that when we’re sitting in our recliner letting
television or games numb our minds.
What does God want from you? A willing spirit. A heart
dedicated to Him. An open mind willing to step forward in faith. Even when the step
is uncomfortable. Maybe, especially, when the step is uncomfortable.
How many blessings do we miss because we refused to
trust the God who created us? How many people have suffered because we refused
to open our minds and our hearts to share with them what God has placed on our
hearts?
We all have to carry a load. It’s not about us. Simple
words. Trite, even. Words we would rather ignore. We want it all to be about
us. Or, at least, about our children, our job, our pleasure. We don’t want to
serve people we’d rather ignore.
Ah, yes. We want to stay around people like us. We
want to choose whom we serve. We want to give on our terms, not God’s terms.
Because sometimes God calls us to step out of our comfort zone and actually get
dirty, get our hearts broken, stir up something we’d rather leave alone.
We weren’t meant to come to Jesus, be filled with the
Holy Spirit, and remain the same. We want all the benefits of salvation without
expressing any of the gratitude. Because that’s what doing God’s will is:
Expressing gratitude and love for all He has done for us.
Life isn’t about staying the same. It’s about walking
in faith. It’s about doing the hard things because that’s the journey God
called us to. It’s about loving the unlovable, giving without reserve, showing
up when we’d rather not. It’s about sharing Him in all we say and do. Anything
less is just an empty life.
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