Change

We all have a dream. For some people it might be finding the right mate and living happily in a nice house with a white picket fence. For another person it might be achieving a certain level of success in a career and getting that corner office in a high-rise building. But, whatever your dream, all our dreams have something in common — as we achieve one dream, another appears and we are on the move once again. This is because, as the saying goes, “Life’s a journey, not a destination.” We can never truly arrive anywhere. We will be forever traveling, forever on the journey of life.

I was reading an interesting article - “Is Change Really a Problem?” By Dr.Jack Graham. He rightly says:

Not only that, but look at the number of options we have today. When I was growing up, we had two channels we could watch on television. Today, we can turn to hundreds of channels without finding a single thing worth watching!

One thing I’ve noticed over the past 40 years is just how much life is changing. Here’s what I mean: On the highway, the speed limit used to be a standard 55 miles per hour. Today, you’ll find places with limits of 80 miles per hour or more.

Our society has developed a habit of pushing the limits. Now, in some ways, that’s beneficial. But in many other ways, it’s become a detriment. It seems like every month now we hear about this or that person who pushed the envelope a little too far. Then there’s a backlash from some, and the whole incident is forgotten until someone tries to go further next time.

Change itself isn’t bad. But all change can really be placed in two categories: progress or decay. Change is either for the better or for the worse. So in our ever-changing society, strive for and support the changes that are beneficial. Make things better by being a cultural catalyst for the things of our never-changing God!

In the book Experiencing God, authors Henry Blackaby and Claude King say that one of seven important steps to experiencing God in everyday life is how God speaks to us. "God speaks by the Holy Spirit through the Bible, prayer, circumstances, and the church to reveal Himself, His purposes, and His ways." [Henry Blackaby and Claude King, Experiencing God (Nashville, Tennessee: LifeWay Press, 1990), 225]

You can examine the life of every major character in the Bible and see this principle expressed in the way God worked in each of their lives.

One of the ways God speaks is through others. God often used others to speak to individuals, especially in the Old Testament when God often spoke through the prophets. This is still one of the ways He speaks today.

You must believe what God says about you, over what everyone else says! Stop listening to those who claim you'll never amount to anything. You might've had a bad childhood, or a failed marriage or career. '...Forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before [you]' (Philippians 3:13 KJV). The Bible doesn't say that we call those things which are not as though they are. Nor does it say others have the power to speak things which are not as though they are over your life. No, it is God, through His Word, Who speaks into existence His will for your life. And you should be glad about that. You wouldn't want anybody else to have power to determine your destiny.

"For He knoweth our frame...." - Psalm 102:14

It is significant that our first astronauts, while being trained for their moon flights, were required to give twenty answers to the query, “Who are you?” Take the same test yourself. When you have made your list and run out of things to add, ask yourself if you have truly answered. Do you really know who you are? Scientists agree that our desperate search leads all humans to seek heroes and to imitate others, to “paste bits and pieces of other people on ourselves.” We make love as some actor would. We play golf in the style of Jack Nicklaus. Part of this process is natural, for we learn by imitating others. The tragedy is that the person we assemble is not genuine. “Who am I?” you cry as you roam the world looking for yourself. Consider this: there are three of you. There is the person you think you are. There is the person others think you are. There is the person God knows you are and can be through Christ.- Billy Graham

Many times in our lives, the very things we fear are acts of God Himself. These are things that perhaps God has brought into our lives so that we can run to Him… to find our strength in Him, relish His love, and experience His awesome grace.

Blessings,

Raj Kosaraju