WANT CHANGE?

Have you thanked Him?

Have you praised Him?

Have you made it your priority to agree and cooperate with Him today?

Have you taken that deep breath and listened for what He has for you today?

1 Timothy 2:1 (The Message)

^1-3The first thing I want you to do is pray. Pray every way you know how, for everyone you know.

Without fail, almost daily, I sit down and work with folks who “want things to change”.

Yesterday at 9am, a good man who had fallen hard, back to his addiction, was seeking a change.

10:30am, a young mom, fresh off a second DUI, weary, hung-over and tired, was seeking a change.

12pm, a lifelong addict, so exhausted from the turmoil and crazy in her life, was tearfully wondering if “things were ever going to change”.

3pm, a phone call with a homeless dad and his 3 kids needing a little more food to make it today, wondering if living on the ministry dime at the local motel was ever going to change.

715pm, over a cup of coffee at a Panera in Kettering, a frazzled mom spills about her 18 year old addicted son, a pregnant girlfriend, a cloud of marijuana smoke and a cadre of bongs and paraphernalia asking HOW do I make HIM CHANGE?

All of them with very unique stories, yet all of them desiring the same thing in their lives

Change!

And while the stories were all quite different, the answer was the same. On our own, these seemingly impossible challenges would be just that, impossible. But if each of them would release those challenges to GOD and trust HIS endless and perfect provision for their lives, CHANGE WOULD BE POSSIBLE! CHANGE WOULD COME!

Philippians 4:13, 19

I (we) can do all things in CHRIST who strengthens me.

And my God will MEET ALL NEEDS according to the riches of his glory in Christ Jesus!

The Lord promises to strengthen us through Christ. The LORD promises the “impossible” when we CHANGE from self-reliance and self-derived solutions and submit, not just the “challenge” to Him, but ourselves to HIM! Provision and promise are waiting. The truth is when we STOP, GOD has always PROMISED to start and THAT IS WHEN CHANGE begins!

2 Timothy 2:22

Run away from infantile indulgence. Run after mature righteousness—faith, love, peace…

Ephesians 4:22-24

…put away the old person you used to be. Have nothing to do with your old sinful life. It was sinful because of being fooled into following bad desires. Let your minds and hearts be made new. You must become a new person and be God-like. Then you will be made right with God…

SEE THAT? You WILL be made what?

RIGHT!

Far too many times we want our CIRCUMSTANCES to change. Make the DUI go away, give me a house, fix my kid, etc. Instead GOD says, "I want to SEE CHANGE IN YOU, I need to see change in them!" "Put the old away and I will make things new", GOD says!

When we begin to make those changes away from the selfish and TO HIS sovereignty, when we inspire those in our life to do the same, GOD says the change that we so desperately wish to experience will most certainly come! Don’t think so? Think again!

Matthew 6:33

Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need.

Perhaps today you are like my friends from yesterday, anxiously needing some things to change.

Seek after GOD; encourage those around you to do the same. Pursue righteous perspectives. Trust in GOD’s endless and perfect provision and goodness. Lean on HIS strength and capacity for the impossible! Let GOD have the problem. More importantly let GOD have you and HE promises that CHANGE is right around the corner!

1 Peter 5:10

After you have suffered for awhile, God Himself…will give you strength. He is the God of all loving-favor…

So you say you “want change”?

So does GOD and it starts with us.

I love you all!

Freedom Church

Pastor GDelaney