Change

The hope and the fear.

Photo by Tanjir Ahmed Chowdhury on Unsplash

What do we do with the fear that things will never change? By things, I mean situations and circumstances in our lives; relational problems, heart issues and deeply rooted sources of pain. What do we do when the lack of change means living with a lingering sense of sadness and disappointment? 

I’ve been reflecting on this reality in my own life and thinking about how I can manage the tension it brings in a healthy and Christ honouring way. I do not want the lack of change in my situation to distract me from the good path Christ has set me on, from living in the fullness of His grace. I want to avoid wallowing in a pit of me-centred self-pity. 

As the saying goes, ‘a change is as good as a rest’. Living our lives always looking for signs of change on the horizon, or feeling perpetually disappointed at the lack of visible change makes achieving any kind of true rest difficult. 

Waiting for change can be wearying, the longer change delays the more weariness can set in. But we know the will of God in this area, He wills that we do not grow weary in doing good, offering us hope that we will reap goodness at the right time if we do not give up. We must keep doing good as we wait for change, not sowing to the flesh with anger and resentment, but sowing to the Holy Spirit reaping life and peace. 

Don’t be deceived: God is not mocked. For whatever a person sows he will also reap,  because the one who sows to his flesh will reap destruction from the flesh, but the one who sows to the Spirit will reap eternal life from the Spirit. Let us not get tired of doing good, for we will reap at the proper time if we don’t give up. Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us work for the good of all, especially for those who belong to the household of faith. (Galatians 6: 7-10 CSB)

The Christ following life means that change is inevitable. Permanent  change is our ultimate goal, becoming more like Christ. There is no guarantee that we will see the exact change in our situations we are hoping for. This alone is hard to deal with, fixating on this can easily lead us down a path of fear. But there will be change in our lives for the better, as we stay faithfully walking with Jesus. While we determine to look steadily at Him and His goodness we are being changed from one degree of glory to another. This may look different to what we are expecting, but this is also the will of God for us. The Father is committed to finishing the good work He has already begun in us. There is a certainty to this. 

 I am sure of this, that he who started a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus. (Philippians 1:6 CSB) 

As we wait for change we can actively lean into the love of God. The God who is love, who personifies and defines love is able to hold us up and eradicate the fear in our own hearts. The fear of change never happening. The fear that ‘no change’ will be the final verdict for our situations because we have failed to achieve Christlike perfection in our daily interactions. The love of God quenches our fear that somehow a lack of change is punishment for our sins. There are of course consequences for our unwise choices , but consequences are not direct punishment. It would be wisdom to ask God to reveal where repentance may be needed before change can come. But the love of God hopes all things, there is hope for change to happen. 

And we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us.God is love, and the one who remains in love remains in God, and God remains in him. In this, love is made complete with us so that we may have confidence in the day of judgement, because as he is, so also are we in this world.  There is no fear in love; instead, perfect love drives out fear, because fear involves punishment. So the one who fears is not complete in love. We love because he first loved us. ( 1 John 4:16-19 CSB)

We can pray. Prayer is the seed of change. As we pray, we sow the seed of trust in God and our belief in His ability and willingness to intervene in our lives. Pray scripture and be reminded of the truth of God’s word, pray the Psalms, pray the ‘Lord’s prayer’ that Jesus taught His disciples to pray. 

When we pray the words ‘Your kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven’, we are praying for the change that is most imperative. His kingdom cannot come without significant change, His will cannot be done without significant change. Making earth more like heaven amounts to seismic change. An answer to prayer means some kind of change has occurred, whether that is external and visible, or internal and barely perceptible. 

Let us refuse to allow the desire for change to distract us from our overall purpose in life. As believers we are always seeking to grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. How can we keep this as our focus whilst our hearts long to see and experience change? How can we remain faithful even if things never change? 

When we focus on growing in grace; doing good, not growing weary, trusting God’s love and praying- we may be surprised at the effect this has. 

We may find that a ‘speck’ has been removed from our situations while we have been faithfully addressing the proverbial log in our own hearts. 

There is much inspiration to be found in Psalm 27 as we wait for change. Like David, we can rest in the fact that the Lord is our light and our salvation so we have nothing to fear. When God is the one holding our life together we have no-one to fear. We can be single minded in our desire to be in His presence and to know Him. We can be confident that He will be with us in adversity. 

Let us live in the certainty that we will see the goodness of the Lord in the life we are living.

We will wait for the Lord, we will be strong, we will guard our hearts and wait for change to come. 

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