True Change

Change happens all around us, and change happens within us. We are not the same person we were 10 years ago, and the world is not the same as it was 10 years ago. We have to choose how we adapt to that change. We have to decide how we will live in response to what we see God doing within us and in the world around us. 

God will not change your will. But He will make you willing to change.

Every new situation we face is an opportunity to change and become new. We can attempt to hold on to our old way of life in futility or we can adopt an attitude of surrender and invite God to create new life in us.

Create in me a clean heart, O God,

And renew a steadfast spirit within me.

Do not cast me away from Your presence,

And do not take Your Holy Spirit from me.

Psalm 51:10-11

God is by His nature creative, so having God’s Spirit inside us means God will always be creating something new in us. When David asks God not to take His Spirit from him, he is inviting God to continue to create and recreate an ongoing creation in himself. Remaining alive requires new creations, which is true for both the physical realm and the spiritual realm. As we continue to develop newness in our spiritual life, we experience God incorporating changes in the continual process of recreating us.

Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself.

As Christians, we want God's Kingdom to come on Earth. The only way to make the big changes that bring God's Kingdom and Will on Earth is through the implications of small changes. We can only change society as a whole by changing the smallest units of society, individuals. The best individual to begin with is ourselves, and once we are in alignment with God's will, we can do the work to help others get into alignment with His Will.

You cannot become what you need to become by remaining what you are.

In order for us to put on our new life, we have to take off and set aside our old life. God always has something more for us. Anything new that we want to incorporate in our experience in our life with God requires us to adjust our current systems. 

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.

II Corinthians 5:17

God invites us into a new life that He has waiting for us, but we have to decide if we are willing to put off the old so we can walk in newness.