Change

Can I change? Can the identity I call my "self" change? I got thinking about this after talking to various people, who are convinced that people can be so set in their ways that they have lost the ability to change.

But I for one hope that I can change. There are things in my character that I know still aren't right, and I know that one day they'll be dealt with.

The Bible says I can change. In fact, it commands it. "Be transformed by the renewing of your minds" (Romans 12:2). That doesn't sound like just a suggestion to me. So not only is it possible, but it's commanded of us! I suspect also that a "transformation" is much more than a little makeover. "Be transformed" - be made totally different. Be changed, completely.

But how many of us actually want to be changed? Or even see change as a necessary thing?

Do we realise how much of us isn't like Jesus? Do we accept that we need to change? Do we believe it's even possible?

Is it that, we as Christians, find it harder to accept that we can change, than a murderer who has found Jesus, or a drug addict who overcomes their addiction through Jesus' love, or an alcoholic who finds Jesus and a new will to live?

Do we think that Jesus doesn't have time for our character flaws, doesn't bother with our "small" needs, that He's more concerned with the "greater" needs of addicts and murderers? No. A murderer gave his life to Jesus while they hung, dying, at Calvary. That should tell us, should affirm to us, that nothing is impossible for God. Nothing is too hard for God.

Not that he doesn't care about the needs of those who consider themselves as "better" than murderers!

"All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." (Romans 3:23)

You can imagine a scale, reaching from down here on earth, right up to the heavens. God is at the top of that scale of "goodness". We are ALL down here on earth. By comparision, all humans are on the same level.

I suspect that if we were perfect, the earth would no longer be able to hold us here...

We, by comparision to God, are no better than thieves, rapists, murderers, addicts. We all fall short, and we all need to change. Praise God that we are saved by the blood of Jesus, that we have a hope!

But we must believe that we can change. We must have faith for it!

If we say that somebody can't change, that they are stuck in their ways, then we are disregarding what the Bible says and our unbelief can stop Jesus from affecting a change in that person.

We need to believe what the Bible says, that we can be transformed - changed completely - by the power of God, our Living God.

Nothing is impossible for God.

And it's not by our own strength that this change happens. "Not by strength, nor by might, but by My power," says the Lord. God can change us. He can make us see who we are supposed to be in Him. He shows us what parts of us are lies. He shows us that we can change. And then, He changes us.

We are no longer who we were, who the world made us. We become who God intended us to be. And who better for us to be!