Embracing the Right Change in Life

Many things change in life. Some change we embrace with eagerness. Some we embrace with reluctance. But embracing the right change comes easily when we embrace God.

Merriam Webster online dictionary defines change as to make different, to become something else. Change alters. It transforms. It makes not just different, but radically different. Change replaces. switches and shifts. It exchanges one thing for another. It is transition. Modification. Change occurs when something passes from one phase to another or from the possession of one owner to another.

Photo by Dan Dennis on Unsplash

We don’t need to look far to see changes. Just look at old photographs of yourself.

Is your hairstyle still the same?

Are your clothes styles still the same?

Perhaps that latest gizmo or gadget we knew for sure would revolutionize our life sits on a shelf gathering dust somewhere. Maybe it even passed from our possession to another’s.

For some of us, while we may still be the same height, our weight may have shifted and settled in places we wish it hadn’t.

Things change. We change. Circumstances change. We replace, switch, shift, exchange, and modify.

There is one essential change, however, every person needs to make. That is the transition from being outside of God’s love, to being inside it. Along with that shift of passing from the possession of one owner to another, comes transforming responsibilities which require us to pass from a worldly lifestyle to a godly one.

Christ-followers are in this world but not of it.

Photo by Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash

We are different. Not just a little bit different, but radically different. Others should know we are Christians by our speech, love, attitude, what we value and spend time pursuing, and how we treat and speak about others.

All of those things, and more, should be different from the world’s speech, love, attitudes, values, pursuits, and how it treats and speaks about others.

When we accept Jesus as Lord and Savior, our old self is put away and the new is put on. We are no longer slaves to sin, but free in Christ’s righteousness. We become something different.

Change through the Holy Spirit alters our thoughts. We no longer think on the things of the world but on what is pure, lovely, righteous, holy, and true. We think on things which are of good report. We think on those things we find in Scripture which bring about transformation in us.

We exchange one lifestyle for another through applying what the Spirit shows us through Scripture to our daily lives. We exchange an earthly way of thinking, living, and speaking, with a heavenly God-honoring way. We exchange those things which do not line up with God’s word for those which do.

Photo by eberhard grossgasteiger on Unsplash

Change can also be substitution. One thing for another.

Or in the case of those of us who call ourselves Christ-followers, one person’s life for another. Jesus is the Lamb of God. The Substitution. The Sacrifice. His life for ours. He paid the debt we owed but could never pay so we can stand in the presence of a Holy God. No longer condemned, but changed.

One thing about change; you have to walk away from something before you can embrace something else.

We can’t cling to this world and embrace heaven at the same time. It’s one or the other. We can’t keep one foot in the world and one foot in heaven at the same time. If we are to change, become different, transform, and shift our thinking, we must replace those things which are not of God for those which are.

How does knowing God loves us unconditionally with an everlasting love make it easier for you to walk away from the things of this world, and embrace him?

I wish you well.

Sandy

Sandy Kirby Quandt

Sandy Kirby Quandt is a follower of Jesus with a passion for history and travel. Passions that often weave their way into her stories and articles. She writes articles, devotions, and stories for adult and children publications. She is a regular contributor to Guideposts devotional books, as well as a conference speaker. Sandy has won multiple awards for her writing, including several years in the Young Adult category of the Writer’s Digest Annual Writing Competition. However, her greatest honor came when she received the Right Stuff Award at Space Camp for Educators. Looking for words of encouragement or gluten-free recipes? Then check out her blog at https://sandykirbyquandt.com

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