Life changes all the time. We change homes. We change jobs. We change clothes. We change a lot of things. Some of us like change and some don’t. Change can be exciting and scary, bad or good. It seems we have experienced a lot of change lately.
Change is one of my favorite parts about my walk with Christ. Christ’s love changes us. God loved to change people’s names in the Old Testament, such as Abram becoming Abraham, Sarai becoming Sarah and my favorite, Jacob becoming Israel after wrestling with God.
God changes us. He changes the way we love ourselves, the way we love others and the way we love Him. The awesome part is that he has never changed. Hebrews 13:8 tells us, “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.”
This means that the same God that created Adam and breathed life into him seeks a daily, loving relationship with me and you. That completely blows my mind! The same God that wrestled with Jacob loves me. The same God that came to earth as a man and preformed miracles seeks a relationship with me. The same God that comes back to establish his kingdom wants me to come to him with my needs. The same God that died for my sins so that I could have a relationship with him wants me to praise Him.
Me and you; God wants us all to have a personal relationship with Him. 1 Timothy 2:3-4 tells us, “This is good, and it is pleasing in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.”
This sounds great! God seeking you to love you. But wait with this relationship comes change. God changes our attitude toward ourselves. We have to love ourselves. God changes our attitude about others. We have to love others no matter who they are. We have to love Democrats, Republicans, Muslims, Hindus, Baptists, Methodists, Catholics, and whoever else you want to put on this list. Most of all we have to love God and be obedient to his commands.
All this change sounds pretty good so far. We have to remember that sometimes change can be painful. Like, when we have to forgive someone that hurt us really bad or love someone that is constantly hurting us. This type of change is hard and painful. We want to rebel against it. We have to remember though, that God changes us for the better.
We have to show our young people that we are willing to be changed even if it’s painful. Ronald Regan said, "All great change in America begins at the dinner table." I think that this is great advice. Sit down and eat with people and talk about this change God is making in your life! They will see that change isn’t that bad. It might hurt but it’s not bad.
Andy Butts was born and raised in Newton County. He is the youth pastor at Journey Church in Oxford, GA. He loves God, his wife, his children, food, Ethiopia, and Star Wars.
