When You Don’t Like Change

Posted on January 7, 2024 by Barbara Harper

Several years ago, our church’s youth pastor felt led to leave his position at our church to begin another ministry. Then an older couple in the church led the teen ministry for several months—maybe a year or more.

When the church finally found a new youth pastor, but before he came, some of the teens were giving grateful testimony of the couple who had filled in. One girl spoke about how much she hated change.

I thought, “Oh, honey. You’re just starting out, and there is so much change ahead of you!” She would have been in for a rough time.

Some people thrive on change and variety, always looking for something new and exciting.

Others of us don’t mind changes every now and then. But we’re eager to get back to our comfortable routines.

Change is a part of life. Without change, we wouldn’t have:

autumn leaves
spring flowers
butterflies
babies
growth
sunrises and sunsets
the change from law to grace
salvation
resurrection
the progression from friendship to love
. . .and so much more

We like those kinds of changes. We’re not thrilled about hard, unexpected disruptive changes.

So many people in the Bible had to face unexpected changes in their lives.

David went from a shepherd to a king.
Moses went from Pharaoh’s stepson to a shepherd to the leader of Israel from Egypt through the promised land.
Gideon was quietly trying to make do in a country under rule of an enemy when God called him to be a leader and fight.
Daniel was a young man when he was taken into captivity, away from family and country, and taken to Babylon.
Mary thought she’d have a quiet life with Joseph, until an angel announced she would carry and bear the Messiah.
Zachariah and Elizabeth probably thought their opportunity to have children was gone. But in their old age, an angel told Zachariah that he and Elizabeth would have John the Baptist.
Paul’s Damascus Road experience had profound effects not only for himself, but also the first-century church and Bible readers today.

Change can be hard. Most of the changes these people faced were great upheavals to their lives.

But if God brings change, He also brings grace to handle it.

And some things will never change:

God’s character
God’s love
God’s Word
God’s truth

About thirteen years ago, we faced several big changes all at once. My husband’s company was moving us to a new state, which would involve new coworkers, a new city, new house, new neighborhood, and new church. My oldest moved to a different state, the first of my kids to move far away. We left behind my middle son and daughter-in-law. My youngest son came with us and had to navigate a new school, friends, and youth group.

During that time, a line from the hymn “Be Still My Soul” stood out to me: “Through every change, He faithful will remain.” That was a steadying truth through all the changes of that year.

Not too long ago, a line from “Abide With Me” came to mind: “Change and decay in all around I see. O thou who changest not, abide with me.”

The first verse of “Still, My Soul, Be Still” by the Gettys and Stuart Townend brings comfort in the face of change:

Still, my soul be still,And do not fearThough winds of change may rage tomorrow.God is at your side;No longer dreadThe fires of unexpected sorrow.

God, You are my God,And I will trust in You and not be shaken.Lord of peace, renewA steadfast spirit within meTo rest in You alone.

Recently I was reminded of a quote attributed to Helen Keller: “A bend in the road is not the end of the road . . .unless you fail to make the turn.”

God, by His grace, will be with us and help us make whatever turns are in the year ahead.

How about you? Have you gone through a time when God helped you make a major change?

(I often link up with some of these bloggers.)

Laudable Linkage

Posted on April 17, 2021 by Barbara Harper

I’m way behind on blog reading, but here are some good ones I’ve come across the last couple of weeks:

So You Want to Be Relevant? “What does the Bible say about itself that will convince the reluctant and indifferent reader to dig in and spend time in the Word, to begin seeing biblical fidelity as the key to remaining relevant in every phase of life?”

Finding Repeated Words and Phrases in Bible reading. “Authors didn’t have bold and italics back then, so a common way to emphasize a point was to repeat it multiple times. It’s like saying, ‘Hey, don’t miss this!’”

Where’s the Lie, HT to Knowable Word. “Con artists don’t look shady. If a lie were obviously false, it wouldn’t be dangerous. Christians know that ‘the heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick’ (Jeremiah 17:9), and yet we regularly overestimate our ability to spot error. We need a consistent standard by which to compare every suggestion we hear. Because of God’s gracious provision, we have such a standard. The words God has already spoken are completely and always reliable.”

When It’s Time to Leave a Church, HT to Challies.

Bucking the Trans Trend, HT to Challies. I’ve been astounded at how far this trend has gotten with so little known about the effects. Thankfully, at least in England, it’s being questioned.

How Forgiveness Displays the Gospel to Our Kids, HT to The Story Warren. “And then it hit me. Only minutes before, I’d shown such little grace to my own daughter, but here I was showing mercy to myself for the very same mistake.”

Finally, I came across this quote this morning. Many of us don’t like change, and not all change is good. But much is necessary.

Have a great weekend!

God’s Part, My Part

Posted on February 15, 2021 by Barbara Harper

“Lord, change me.”

Do you ever pray that? And do you ever get frustrated with the slowness of change? Or even the lack of change?

I do. I pray for God to fill me with the fruit of His Holy Spirit, and not an hour later get impatient. I pray for victory over anger, and then lose my temper over something trivial. I pray for help with self-control, and then convince myself it really is okay to eat another cookie.

I can’t do anything without God’s help, so it’s good to ask for it. But sometimes He doesn’t want us to stop there. He wants us to take action—not by ourselves, but with Him.

Walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. (Galatians 5:16)

If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit. (Galatians 5:25)

Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. (John 15:4)

And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. (2 Corinthians 3:18)

But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires. (Romans 13:14)

Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind. (Romans 12:2a)

So flee youthful passions and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace, along with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart.

Put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness. (Ephesians 4:22-24)

The Bible is full of action verbs. We don’t do any of these things to earn God’s love or favor, We’re saved by grace through faith. He loved us when we were His enemies. He already loves us abundantly—He’s not going to love us more if we get our act together.

Nor do we sanctify ourselves or make ourselves Christlike. He does that.

But He asks us to obey. To abide. To behold Him. To be transformed by renewing our mind with His truth. To participate. To respond. To cooperate.

1 Timothy 4:7 says to “train yourself for godliness.” Other translations use “discipline” or “exercise.” What happens when we exercise? We expend energy and effort to the point of aching and sweating. Paul goes on to say “For to this end we toil and strive,” not in order to earn God’s favor, but “because we have our hope set on the living God, who is the Savior of all people, especially of those who believe” (1 Timothy 4:10). He tells the Corinthians, “I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified” (1 Corinthians 9:27). According to a note here, the Greek word translated “discipline” means “pummel”: “I pummel my body.” Grace doesn’t mean passiveness or a lack of effort.

I’ve spent a great deal of time wondering what’s God’s part and what’s my part in the Christian life. Someone once said, “Pray as if everything depended on God and work as if everything depended on you.” I don’t know if that’s quite it. It helps me more to think of man with the withered hand or the paralyzed man whom Jesus told to rise, take up his bed, and walk. He told them to do exactly what they couldn’t do. But in taking Him at His Word and obeying, they were given grace and power to do what He said.

Maybe it doesn’t matter exactly where the lines are. Maybe it’s not a formula: God does those steps and then I do these. In many of those verses listed, God’s part and our part go hand in hand. We abide in Him, He abides in us, He produces fruit. We behold Him, He transforms us.

Do I abide in prayer, or do I race through a prayer list? Do I behold Him in His Word, or do I run my eyes down the day’s reading? Do I look for the promised escape from temptation or for an excuse to indulge?

So I pray. And by faith I abide, behold, renew. And I trust Him to transform. And I remember a walk is a series of steps to a destination. And I remember bearing fruit is a long process of growth.

(Sharing with Selah, Scripture and a Snapshot, Hearth and Soul, Senior Salon,
Inspire Me Monday, Remember Me Monday, Tell His Story, InstaEncouragements,
Recharge Wednesday, Let’s Have Coffee, Grace and Truth, Blogger Voices Network)

Laudable Linkage

Posted on February 22, 2020 by Barbara Harper

These are some noteworthy reads discovered this week:

To Redeem ‘Cancel Culture’, There Must Be Room for Redemption, HT to Challies. “But now to the most apparent deficiency of secularism as a religion: the absence of any explicit provision for redeeming and restoring to acceptance by the community those judged guilty of violating its moral code.”

Peace in the Beforehand. “If I dread an upcoming difficulty, as well as suffer through it, I’ve doubled my misery.” And, Sandy goes on to say, if we dread something, but then everything goes fine, we’ve wasted all that angst. Such a helpful perspective.

My Heart Is a Featherweight. I’ve enjoyed Laura Ingalls Gunn’s blog for many years. Yes, she’s related to the real LIW. But this might be my favorite post: a true story about how God brought two people to the exact same spot, one with a longtime desire, one looking for just the right person to give a treasured item to.

Dear Teenage Daughter: You Aren’t Entitled.

Protecting Digital Accounts After Death.

And a thought for the day:

. . . or sunrises or seasons or growth.