Change a little word that can have BIG implications! What better time of year to talk about change than the beginning! We all the make resolutions and sometimes stick to them....but what makes it so hard for us to start changing or make the change permanent?
Some of the lessons in the Bible study that I have been doing have talked about little children and how Jesus loved them. This caused me to think about what it means to become like a little child (Matthew 18:3-4). Did Jesus mean to have a child's unaltered faith and trust or their honesty? Maybe it is their determination.
Determination. Is that what it takes to accomplish change? When I was young, middle school age, I desperately wanted to fit into a particular group at school. I distinctly remember telling myself over and over that there was no reason that I could not be friends with this group, and continually sought similarities between me and the kids in this group. I started taking to them and sometimes hanging around with them. I have to say that I wasn't ever invited into their closest circles but I did change my circumstances and the way my middle school and high school years turned out. Why is it so hard for me now to have the same determination to change my circumstances, my attitude, the things in my life that I know God is telling me to change for my own good?
I have not made any "resloutions" this year because God has started a change in me that I don't think requires a resolution. Pursuing a deeper relationship with Him is something that He has called me to do and I cannot (and don't even want to try) resolve to it without Him. I am starting this New Year with Philippians 3:12-14,
"12) Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me. 13) Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, 14) I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
No matter if you make a resolution or not, do make God a priority in your life this year. Your efforts and God's faithfulness will not return void!
