Change is Hard

"Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever"

Hebrews 13:8

 

Change is hard work!  There is no other way to put it.  Most of us don't like change because of the difficulty that comes with it.  Changes takes a lot of faith, humility, and perseverance.  In light of the beginning of the new year, I wanted to take some time to talk about change because a lot of people desire to make changes at the new year, or 'resolutions' to do things different or reach new goals.  Everybody has all sorts of changes they want to usher into their lives in the new year.  Many of these goals are perhaps focused on their health, or maybe finances, creating better relationships, and so on.  Now all of these changes can be good changes for your life, and they require using what is called the "Change Cycle", which serves as a guide for the intentional changes you are desiring for your life.  This cycle is a six stage process to get to the desired outcome.  First, is pre-contemplation; you haven't even began to dwell on the change or goal yet.  Next comes the contemplation stage, this is where you are starting to think 'do I really want to make that change?'  After that comes the work, the next two stages are the preparation stage and action stage.  These two steps are the heart of the work.  In these stages of the change cycle you make a plan of action and begin to walk it out.  Step five is the desired outcome of the cycle, this is the maintenance stage.  This is where the goal has been met, the desired behavior modification has been made, and now you work to maintain the results of the change in your life.  The sixth stage was added later, and this is the relapse stage.  This tends to happen because we are all human, meaning inevitably we will all make mistakes and fall back into old behaviors from time to time.  This step doesn't have to get met with every change cycle we go through, but when we fail to maintain the change, this is the ultimate result.  But take heart!  We can go right back into the preparation and action stage, and get right back to maintaining the behavior change.  So this is one type of change, sort of the 'self-help' kind of thing for when we want to make an intentional change in our lives.  But what happens when unintentional change takes place in our lives?  There are always two types of changes in life, and they are both very difficult.  We have intentional changes we want to make; we recognize undesirable outcomes in our lives and want to change the behavior associated with them.  Intentional change is hard work, and often not carried on all the way through because of the discomfort and difficulty.  Again, change is hard for all of us.  Then there is unintentional change; we have undesirable circumstances that happen to come upon us all of the sudden in life.  These things could be a loss in the family/loved one, a job loss or financial challenge, a relationship difficulty, secret sin coming out, a pandemic, literally anything that happens to us that we don't expect that can rock our world!  We all have experienced unintentional change in so many different ways, and it is difficult!  In both cases of change, intentional and unintentional, the one commonality that sustains the change is faith.  "Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen" (Heb. 11:2).  In the event of intentional change, we have faith that what we are planning and the action we are taking will lead us to change.  We have to have faith, or an assurance of the change we do not yet see.  Without faith in the assurance of change to come, there would be no hope for change, and we just remain the same.  In the case of unintentional change, faith remains the requirement as well.  Because when things happen in our lives that are unexpected, that rock our very existence to the core, we need to have a faith that remains constant.  When everything in our lives begins to be shaky, difficult, and troubling, we need faith that "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever"!  Because when change comes, and one thing for sure is change ALWAYS comes, we need a firm foundation.  So that when our world gets rocked, we can look to Jesus and know that we have hope beyond this ever changing world.  We can look to Jesus to guide us, love us, and we can continue in His mercy and grace through the storm.  When our world gets rocked, our foundation remains sturdy!  Today, pray and ask the Lord to calm your worries, your anxieties, and your stress.  Thank Him and ask Him for a peace that comes only from Jesus, and the strength to shine His light in this ever changing world!  Love you all!  Praying for you and yours!  Have a blessed day, it's your choice!