Dear People Who Keep Company With God,
A few years ago we were talking about and sensing the winds of change beginning to blow. We even danced on pocket change and it was a lot of fun, but we had no clue the magnitude of change that was coming and that we are now experiencing. Change is here and much of it is very challenging. The world we live in today is not the same economically, socially or spiritually as the world of only a couple of years ago.
During changing times we can start feeling insecure and begin to question stuff concerning our lives. Some change jobs, churches, friends and even their spouse, as life is not what it once was. We all are tempted to take things into our own hands and start making changes. Be careful! If there ever was a time to walk circumspectly, it is now (Eph. 5:15-18).
However, some change is forced upon us and we must not put our heads in the sand and hope it goes away. It is an undeniable fact that one year from now our life will be better or it will be worse, but it will not be the same. We are to be intentional and steward ourselves through these changing times. One of the best things we can do is stay committed to the course of life that God designed for us (2 Tim. 4:7) regardless of the changing circumstances.
Sometimes in life, the only thing we have control or decision-making authority over is ourselves. Our response, attitude and focus are what each of us can decide upon for ourselves. No one has the right to determine those for us unless we give the right to them. A long time ago, I made a conscious decision that I was not going to live with a victim mentality. I was not going to allow my history, shortcomings, circumstances and what others said or did determine the course of my life. And we are not to be victims of change.
Change should serve us and reposition us to be enlarged and prosper in His kingdom. I think many believe this, or at least hope it is so, but the feelings of change are so misleading that we misinterpret what is going on and start reacting and doing stuff that works against us. But God desires to use change to bring us into prosperity of soul and life (3 John 2). This is not simply an economic prosperity, but having and living a quality of life that inspires and benefits others.
King David is a great example of this. He not only served God in his generation (Acts 13:36), but has been a source of inspiration and example for every believing generation since. David could have easily become a victim of his father ignoring him, his brothers resentment and put down, Saul’s insanity, his terrible sin with Bathsheba and on and on, but in the end he was the man raised up by God, the man anointed by God, the sweet Psalmist of Israel (2 Sam. 23:1). David was truly a blessings magnet and that is the change God wants to make in all of our lives, to change us into blessings magnets.
Many Blessings, BW