Is Change Possible?
I love Diet Coke.
Like loooooveeee Diet Coke.
The only problem is: Large amounts of it everyday really isn’t good for you.
I’ve been drinking Diet Coke my whole life (4-5 cans a day) and never really thought about stopping until I realized that excessive intake could harm my body later on down the line.
So with the help of the Holy Spirit this past week, I decided it was time to start taking care of my body. It was time to make a change—a change that God had been telling me to make for a long time.
It makes me wonder how many times we find ourselves living the same old way we have been our whole lives and doing the same old things we’ve done just because it’s familiar and comfortable?
As Christians, we know that change is possible, but how often are we waiting on God to change something for us when He might be telling us to get up and steward what He’s given us better?
This goes far beyond drinking Diet Coke in moderation.
What has God put on your heart that you haven’t done yet? What are the things that are stirring inside of you that you know you could be doing better with? Has doubt, fear, or unbelief kept you from moving forward in the changes God might be asking you to make?
Stuck Vs. Stagnant
Every situation is different, but what if in some areas of our lives, we aren’t stuck, we’re just stagnant?
To be stagnant is to be inactive, not advancing or developing.
Stagnancy is not God’s will for our lives.
In John 17, right before Jesus is betrayed by Judas and arrested, He prays for believers.
“Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth. As You sent Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world. And for their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they also may be sanctified by the truth.”
It’s God’s will that we be sanctified—looking more and more like Jesus every single day in every single way.
But sometimes, we try to separate the spiritual and the secular, asking God to have His way in the Church service or Bible study, but denying His power to work in the more practical areas of our lives every other day of the week. (And then we wonder why we feel stuck!)
But the truth is that God wants to be the King of your whole life, not just the parts you feel comfortable surrendering to Him.
So what’s keeping us stagnant? Here are two things that come to my mind:
A lack of intentionality.
A lack of belief or knowledge of certain things God has said in His Word about how we should live and conduct our lives.
A lack of intentionality will always cause stagnancy because where there isn’t intention, there isn’t much movement.
Have you ever been in a hurry and found yourself behind someone moving very slowly? It could be that they had nowhere to be, but you did, so you went around them and moved quickly and intentionally to get to the place where you needed to be.
So it is with our lives. When there is no intention—no aim, no purpose, no plan, we tend to lollygag.
On the other side of that coin, when there is intention—an aim, a purpose, a plan, we tend to move, grow, and develop; and as Christians, it should be our hearts to move in fashion with what God is saying to us.
When I was in school, during passing period, teachers would tell us to “walk with a purpose.”
What would happen if we started walking with purpose more in our lives?
Three Aspects of Change
In order to experience change, three things must happen:
Firstly, we must be aware that (1) change is possible and then (2) have an awareness of what needs to change.
Oftentimes we’re not aware of either and we end up spending our whole lives stagnant instead of moving in the commandments, assignments, and impressions of God.
Commandments and assignments in scripture are different. A commandment from God is for all believers—how God says we are to live.
Are we making disciples? (Matthew 28:19-20)
Are we loving God and others? (Matthew 22:37-40)
Are we using our gifts to serve people (1 Peter 4:10)
Are we stewarding our lives well? (Matthew 25:14-30)
The assignments from God are the specific, and oftentimes seasonal, things God has asked us to do.
Impressions are those little nudges, the still, small voice of the Holy Spirit telling us things. (Like “Cut down on the Diet Coke Hannah.”)
The way we know the voice of the Holy Spirit is because the Holy Spirit will never contradict the Word of God. Jesus says that His sheep hear his voice, and He knows them, and they follow Him.
God desires that we know Him personally and that we grow in Him.
Secondly, there must be a willingness to change. We won’t change or grow if we don’t want to. And sometimes, we are willing, but our flesh is weak. The good news is God is willing to help us.
Lastly, there must be a mindset reformation because we won’t grow in Christ operating with the same thoughts we’ve had, especially thoughts that are lies and don’t line up with God’s Word.
“I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God."
What would happen if we continuously lived in the habit of renewing our minds with the Word of God? What would happen if our minds, our hearts, our mouths, our hands and our feet were fully submitted to Him in everything that we do?
May we live how He commands, may we walk in the assignments that He has given us, and may we heed to the voice of the Holy Spirit daily.
And we find that when we live in step with what the Lord is saying to us through His Word, that it’s actually beneficial for us.
“This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate in it day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success.”
“My son, do not forget my law, But let your heart keep my commands; For length of days and long life And peace they will add to you. Let not mercy and truth forsake you; Bind them around your neck, Write them on the tablet of your heart, And so find favor and high esteem In the sight of God and man. Trust in the Lord with all your heart, And lean not on your own understanding; In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He shall direct your paths. Do not be wise in your own eyes; Fear the Lord and depart from evil. It will be health to your flesh, And strength to your bones.”
God is infinite in wisdom and when He commands something of us, it’s because He knows what’s best.
Tending the Garden of Your Life
If we understand that change is possible and it requires another level of intentionality, what do we do?
In Genesis 2, we see God give man three things.
Firstly, God gave man identity.
“And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into His nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being.”
God breathed into man and Adam became a living person.
A creation can only be defined by the one who created it and God said in Genesis what that man was made in His image.
Secondly, God gave man an assignment.
“Then the Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to tend and keep it.”
In the King James version, it says man was put in the garden to “dress it.” That term “to dress” means to work, to serve, to labor.
And lastly, God gave man a partner.
“And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall on Adam, and he slept; and He took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh in its place. Then the rib which the Lord God had taken from man He made into a woman, and He brought her to the man.”
Identity. Assignment. Partnership.
If you’re alive, God has breathed His life into you. He’s called you to be His child (first and foremost) and He’s given you assignments in this life and people to labor with you in these assignments.
God has placed you in the garden of your own life and we have the responsibility to tend to this garden well. If we don’t tend to the garden of our lives, things will get messy and chaotic.
All of us find ourselves placed in different gardens, having different lives, and it’s our job not to look at someone else’s life and covet it, but to steward well what we’ve been given and where we’ve been put.
Straight from Merriam-Webster, stewardship is the careful and responsible management of something entrusted to one’s care.
Our lives belong to God and He desires that we would make something of them—not just anything though. But that we would be about what He wants to do in us and through us.
It gives a whole new understanding to Romans 12:1-2.
If we’re going to tend to the garden of our lives well, we have to look at the different seeds we’ve been given.
Our walk with the Lord/Discipleship
Health (Mental, physical, emotional)
Relationships
Work/Career
Money
Rest & Enjoyment
Natural & Spiritual Giftings
Looking at your life, how would you say on a scale from 1-10 you are doing with watering and nurturing these seeds?
If you’re not doing well with some or maybe even all of these (I know I’m not!), there’s no reason to beat yourself up. The goal isn’t to be a 10/10 on all of these. The goal is to be better about stewarding them faithfully.
When we stand before God, He won’t say, “Well done, perfect servant.” But He will say, “Well done, good and faithful servant.”
On the ones you find yourself lower at, consider, with the Lord’s help, what you can do to nurture them better because God deserves our best in everything we do.
And even when we find ourselves in seasons of loss and brokenness and begin to think we have nothing left to give, the beautiful thing is He just wants us—as broken and messy as we are.
We have to remember though that the Christian walk isn’t as much doing for God as it is abiding in Him and Him in us—relationship with the Father. (Which we’ll talk about more soon later.)
A great way to begin stewarding your life better is to start with the thinking that is keeping you stagnant, replacing those thoughts with what God says in His Word about how we should be living and doing, and then being intentional with what you are doing with your time.
In other words, where is all of your time going? Do you need to make some room to work on other seeds?
I know this all started with Diet Coke, but is there something in your life that God has told you directly through His Word or by a nudging of the Holy Spirit needed to change?
If so, I would encourage you that it might be time to make a change with the Lord’s help.
The heart of a good steward is to be intentional and fruitful with the gifts and the resources the master provided him or her.
Stewardship has nothing to do with becoming great in and of ourselves and everything to do with glorifying our Father in heaven with what we’ve been given.
True change is very much possible, but it requires surrender to God’s ways and thoughts above our own. It’s all easier said than done, but it’s worth it.
I hope this blessed you in some way.
Hannah