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Change....

by Shannon Heiden  
3/16/2009 / Devotionals

What is it about change that we naturally seem to resist? There are some changes in this life that we wholeheartedly embrace and have felt could have come a lot sooner, for instance; when we are young we can't wait to get older, you and a loved one grows closer, a salary enlarges because of a promotion, ones health improves, a desire of a heart is fulfilled, a change of pace comes, life is simpler, new relationships come, new opportunities open up, you become wiser, God is bigger and the world is brighter.

Then, there are the changes we find ourselves fighting with everything in us, like; facing and quitting an addiction, saying goodbye to a beloved, friendships that fade, jobs that are lost, houses are destroyed, families are torn apart, your heart hurts and wont be helped, life becomes complicated, your vision is blurred and the world becomes confusing.

What is it about change that we fear? Why is it that most of the time we do have faith but it is the fearful kind of faith and we believe change will be the catalyst for our demise?

We fear losing control, we fear the 'what ifs,' we fear the 'how will it all work out,' what if it doesn't? We fear being exposed and becoming vulnerable, we fear being uncomfortable, we fear failure and what people will think of us. Ultimately if we are believers we can fear God will not really help us through.

When you really think about it, change is many things, change happens everyday whether we like it or not, whether we want it or not and whether we cooperate with it or not.

Change is constant. Seasons change, people change, age changes, jobs change, kids change, marriages change, churches change, friends change, finances change, even your likes and dislikes change and the list goes on and on.

I don't know if it is the changing that is so overwhelming and seemingly unpleasant, it's not really the people, places or things that we have such a hard time with, but that of our own self.

Who am I now, in this situation? Who am I as a different me? Who are you?

There is an uncertainty that comes with any kind of change. If the change is a good one than there is an excitement and a renewed sense of hope and purpose. If the change comes as a hardship, the proclivity we have as human beings is to try to place blame as to why it occurred.
But no matter the "whys" in life, the Bible says it is the end of a matter that is greater; it's not how you start out but how you finish. (Ecclesiastes 7:8)

This gives me a great sense of hope and peace, my early part wasn't so great and the middle?, well lets just say I am embracing the latter end more and more. But even in the places we can find ourselves in at the present moment, can't we honestly say that it hasn't always been easy, there have been more tears than we would have liked, we may have fallen more than we have stood up. We may have been known to be swimming upstream more than down but yet we have more peace now than at any other time in our lives.

We are smarter than we've ever been, wiser in our ways, happier and even though we don't know what it all looks like tied together, we know that in the end when all the pieces are finally put together, we win!

Sometimes when we are discontent or when we are lacking, when there is a void in us, we tend to search out others or things to fill us. Sometimes we can even have such a strong desire to move geographically thinking that a new land will afford us peace and joy, only to find it distracts us from the fact that if we are leaking from the inside here we will just leak from the inside over there in a new place.

I sense that during those times when God seems silent, when the Word doesn't leap off the page, when it doesn't spring up inside us like we've known, I have found that, that is not the time to make life changing decisions.

I believe the Lord in His wonderful process wants and desires change for us more than we do, but He wants the change to come from the inside out, not the outside in. If the Lord is our Great Physician than maybe, just maybe, He has us sedated so He can do what He does best, surgery.

The Bible tells us 'a new heart I will give you, I will remove your heart of stone and give you a new heart of flesh and a new Spirit I will put within you.' (Ezekial 36:26)

Some of us have spent years out in the world, and absolutely yes, the Lord can change us in an instant but remember, the Lord is not a God of shortcuts. He took the Israelites the long way around not the easy eleven day way. They had been in bondage for 400 years. No, God is a God of the process, it is not the promise we have to obtain for He has already given it.

It is the process of change that takes place in ones heart that prepares us for the promise to be fulfilled.

Change, it is often unavoidable but it is always purposeful to getting you through.
Whether we face difficulty, hardship, pain or pressure, always remember that purpose and power is just around the corner.

One of the greatest Words God ever wrote was; "and it came to pass." We cannot go into a new thing with old baggage, drop it, lose it, burn it up, because God has something up ahead more wonderful than anything behind you and you dont need the things that got you through in the wilderness.

Change, His method may change but the message always stay the same.

Shannon Heiden
[email protected]
changingonelifereachingmany.typepad.com

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