READY FOR A CHANGE?

Why are we so resistant to change?

Please understand, I speak as an expert on resisting change. I have had YEARS of experience. I have lived in the same house for 25 years and have the same curtains in the living room, dining room, kitchen and master bedroom that I made when we moved in. And, as bad as I hate to admit it, the furniture in all those rooms is still in the original arrangement it was 25 years ago (though a few pieces have been replaced along the way). Is that sad or what?? I laugh all the time and say my house is caught in a 1980's time warp!

Change is a challenge sometimes. Perhaps we shy away from it because we don't feel we're up to the challenge.

Joanna Weaver wrote: "My deepest fear is waking up twenty years from now still the same woman I am today. With the same annoying habits and petty attitudes; with the same besetting sins and false beliefs. I can't imagine anything more terrible than getting to the end of my life only to discover that God had so much more in mind for me - more freedom, more joy, more peace, more true effectiveness. And I had missed it all, simply because I refused to change." [Having A Mary Spirit, p. 23]

Amen and AMEN!! I'm with you, Joanna!

Let's try a little experiment:

Imagine that a clear, odorless gas is entering the room you are in right now. This gas will not harm you, but it does have one profound effect. When you breathe it in, your body, your mind, and your spirit will be locked in at its current state. No matter what you do, you are stuck where you are today.

How does that make you feel? Are you elated? Are you frustrated? Are you devastated? Think for a minute about how you feel and why you feel that way.

Here's the important point: today is all you have for certain. Now is the moment you live in. Not yesterday. Not tomorrow. Now. Today.

• If you looked at your body and felt devastated that you would have to live the rest of your life this size and shape


• If you considered your mind and felt devastated that you would have to live the rest of your life with the same attitudes and wounded emotions


• If you looked at your spirit and felt devastated that you would have to live the rest of your life without any greater intimacy with God than you have right now


• Then, let me ask you, girlfriend, why are you resisting change?

Can we grab hold of the challenge of change?

Paul wrote:

Not that I have already obtained all this,

or have already been made perfect,

but I press on to take hold of that

for which Christ Jesus took hold of me.

Brothers, I do not consider myself yet

to have taken hold of it.

But one thing I do:

Forgetting what is behind and

straining toward what is ahead,

I press on toward the goal to win

the prize for which God has called me

heavenward in Christ Jesus.

Philippians 3:12-14

In all areas of life, despite our weaknesses, we need to live in the moment. The "now." We will never "arrive" in any area of life this side of heaven. But let's press on, girlfriends!!

Are you ready for God to make some changes in your life? I am! And I am rejoicing in the fact that - he who began a good work in me will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus. (Phil. 1:6)

Let's embrace change wherever it is needed so that we have

• the freedom
• the joy
• the peace
• the true effectiveness

that God has in mind for us.