Introduction:
· Change is not always easy. Our human natures do not enjoy change. · We are creatures of habit and we prefer to stay that way. · God, however, loves us as we are but loves us far too much to leave us as we are. When God comes into our lives things begin to change. · His love and kindness for us facilitates change within our hearts and lives. · Although change may not be a comfortable experience, when God is involved it is for our good. · We must just allow God to work in our lives and change us. 1. THE GOOD NEWS CHANGES US. · When our lives come in contact with God and His Good News, change begins to take place within us. · Can you remember how your life changed when you heard about the saving power of Jesus Christ? · Colossians 1:6 The same Good News that came to you is going out all over the world and changing lives everywhere, just as it changed yours that very first day you heard it and understood about God’s great kindness to sinners. · The fact is that in God’s love and kindness He reached down to each of us and offered us something that would change our lives. · As we allow God into our lives the process of change begins. · If you have never invited God into your heart and life, why not consider it. 2. CHANGED AS WE BECOME GOD’S OWN · When we invite God into our lives some wonderful things happen. · One of the most amazing is that we can become one of God’s own children. · This is one of the dramatic changes that take place as we give our lives to Him. · 1 Peter 2:10 Once you were less than nothing; now you are God’s own. Once you knew very little of God’s kindness; now your very lives have been changed by it. · The fact that we belong to God indicates a change in our status. · We have become children of God. · But this is only the beginning of change. 3. GOD IS LOOKING FOR THOSE WHO HAVE CHANGED · Change is something in us that God is looking for. · Change is something that we can experience and seek in our lives. · We have an ability to change. · Change, however, is not always easy. · But if we will allow God into our lives He will help and change us. · Romans 2:29 For God is not looking for those who cut their bodies in actual body circumcision, but he is looking for those with changed hearts and minds. · Change, within us humans, is something that God is looking for. · Galatians 6:15 It doesn’t make any difference now whether we have been circumcised or not; what counts is whether we really have been changed into new and different people. · What really matters is whether we have changed as a result of our contact with God! 4. NEVER THE SAME · We cannot expect that after allowing God into our lives that we would just remain the same. · Contact with God, by definition, means that we will never be the same. · 1 Thessalonians 2:13 the very Word of God which …. changed your lives when you believed it. · There was a song that we used to sing with the following words: ‘Just one glimpse of His glory, just one touch of His hand and I will never be the same’. · God wants to work in each one of our lives and bring about change. · The result of God working in our lives will mean that we will change and we will never be the same again. 5. GOD WILL MAKE THE CHANGES · Sometimes we think that when it comes to change we have to do all the work. · Often times we have tried to change our lives and it has not worked. · We don’t have to pull ourselves up by our own bootlaces, because God wants to step into our lives and His presence brings about change. Deuteronomy 28: 8-9 The Lord will bless you with good crops and healthy cattle, and prosper everything you do when you arrive in the land the Lord your God is giving you. He will change you into a holy people dedicated to Himself. · Luke 1:17 He will soften adult hearts to become like little children’s, and will change disobedient minds to the wisdom of faith. 6. IT STARTS WITH US · It is not as though we just sit passively by waiting for God to change us. · It is an interactive process that starts with our decisions and with us. · Acts 3:19 Now change your mind and attitude to God and turn to him so he can cleanse away your sins and send you wonderful times of refreshment from the presence of the Lord. · It is when God’s presence becomes a reality in our lives that the change can begin to take place. · As we make the right choices, change will begin to take place and as a result we will be pleasing to God. Ezekiel 20:41 You will be to me as an offering of perfumed incense when I bring you back from exile, and the nations will see the great change in your hearts. · The change in our hearts is like perfumed incense to God. 7. EMBRACE CHANGE · Many times we resist change. · Humans are not comfortable with change even though it is an inevitable part of life. · But God is also working within us and this causes change to take place in our lives. · Often times God uses the situations and circumstances we are facing to bring about change in our lives. · We can resist change, but I believe that God wants us to be like clay that He can mould and shape, so that the change He wants to bring about can occur. · What I am talking about is not always easy, but it is something that God wants to do in our lives. · If we resist the working of God in our lives we will end up out of shape. · But if we will embrace the working of God in our lives we will become what God intended for us to be! 8. GOD CHANGES THE OLD INTO THE NEW · This is something that only God can do. · God is in the business of turning things around. · God wants to take the old things and transform them into something new and wonderful. · Revelation 21:5 and he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. · 2 Corinthians 5:17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. · Change is something that God has in store for each of us. · The change is something positive and wonderful. · The Bible tells us that He wants to change us from Glory to Glory. · 2 Corinthians 3:18 But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory. · Allow God to continue the changing work that He wants to do in your heart and life. Comments are closed.
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Ana & Andre Schoonbee God uses us to motivate and encourage the body. Authors
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