Now is the time ...... To Change

……………… what counts is whether we really have been changed into new and different people. Galatians 6:15 (NLT)

Is there something that you have been meaning to change? Perhaps it’s a habit you need to break, a way of thinking or speaking, maybe you’ve been feeling it’s time to change the way you look, lose some weight, get fit, or even move the furniture around.

My mother always said, “There’s no time like the present!” and I took her quite literally, so in our early years of marriage I would sometimes sit and watch TV all evening and plan a new way of organizing the furniture “for a change”. Colin would often find himself moving furniture at midnight – it used to be a family joke. He went along with my whims for a few years but then decided it was madness and he was not going to enable my instant gratification any longer! “Tomorrow” became a new word in my vocabulary.

Some people are afraid to change; to move jobs, move house, or country. Sometimes change is necessary and beneficial. It’s not good to be stuck in a rut. As followers of Jesus we need to be open to change. When we came into the family of God the first change we made was to come to a place of acknowledging our need for change from our sinful state so we repented of our sins. To repent literally means to change our mind and our direction – to turn around and go the opposite way.

Throughout our faith journey we are being changed into the likeness of Jesus (2 Corinthians 3:18). That’s what it’s all about. This happens as we begin to obey Christ's words and become like our Master. Paul also writes in Romans 12:2 that we are to be “transformed (changed) by the renewing of our minds…”. Our thinking needs to be changed so that it comes into line with God’s thinking as revealed in his word.

Yes, we are on a journey of change and it is a challenge, but the good news is that God is working in us to bring this change about (Philippians 2:13), and it will finally be completed when we rise again to meet him. “We shall all be changed in the twinkling of an eye” (1 Corinthians 15:51-52) and best of all…… we will be like him. Hallelujah! In the meantime, we need to continue to cooperate with him in making the changes he shows us we need to make.

Prayer: Change my heart O God, make it ever true, change my heart O God, let me be like you. Amen