~ The Change Maker

How hard do you find it to make changes in your life?  I’m not talking about changes that are external like where we are and the job we are doing, or even who we call friends.  I am talking about changes that change you, changes that are internal.

Often when we look at our life and are not satisfied with what we find, we look outside ourselves.  The reason is that we know that, instinctively, that it is easier to change others or the external factors than it is to change ourselves.

The “New Years Eve Resolution” syndrome is just one proof of/for the difficulty in making a change in our lives.  Every year people formulate lists of things that they feel will make the year starting better, or happier.  Every year the same people find that the same lists do nothing but make them feel more incapable of change than they were the year before, because of the fact that they just return to their old behaviours within weeks if not days.

We would rather put the blame for our unhappiness on someone else.  Things would be great if the wife/husband would just be more ... that is what I am missing.  Or things would be different at work if X was more flexible or appreciate me more.  It isn’t your fault that the world isn’t designed for you, it is always about someone else.

The fact is that most of the time we would change our situation by changing our own life or our expectations, if we only could.  It is almost a universal truth that we are the ones who contribute most to our own unhappiness.  By the same token, we are the ones who are most able to contribute to our own and other’s happiness.  It is all in the perspective that we put on the issue in hand; we can see it positively or negatively and respond to it the way we see it.

For example if we are feeling a little unloved at home then our first move is to make the change and start treating those at home a little more lovingly.  You may be treated cynically at first but with persistence and refusing to be put off, you will enable the environment to change for the better.  At work when you are being leant on to do more, or better, the superiors will notice a change when you put in without being forced to.

It is all well and good talking about being a change maker but the real Change-Maker is Father God.  He is the one who knows us the best.  He is the one who enables us to change into a better person.  Humanly speaking we need someone outside us to give us the why and how of becoming a changed being.  We can move in the right direction for a good enough inspiration but for permanent and lasting change we need God

The Bible tells us that the heart is corrupt and bent on evil, even Jesus made the same statements that evil emanated from the desires of the heart.  It is only after the one change that makes all the difference that we become enabled to see things in a new light.  That change is to have an encounter with Jesus and to resolve to follow Him.  He sets a new heart within us as part of the new life He gives us.

This is what makes Jesus the Change-Maker because He enables us to live a different life – one that is more other centred than me centred.  He also enables us to live so that others can see the life within us and be blest by it.  Let us all live the life He has intended for us so that He will be glorified in our lives.