Change and 2012

It's a new year! 2012 has blown in with a cool breeze here in South Carolina. As the temperature changes to a winter-like chill, I keep pondering the word "change."

I've seen that word frequently this week. Change. Some of us like change, while others...not so much.

As often as I've seen the word change, I've seen the word resolution. People across the world are considering their resolutions for the changes they'd like to see made in their lives this year. Which brought me to considering the following:

Hebrews 13:8 says, "Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever." In other words, He doesn't change. His Word has been the same since the Holy Spirit hovered over the depths of the earth. It's been the same since Eve convinced Adam to partake of the apple with her. It's been the same since Mary heard from an angel that she would be pregnant with God's child. And God's Word remained the same as His Son hung on a cross at Calvary, dying so that we could change.

And that's the key. So often, we want God to change. We want Him to ignore the fact that we've gone around the mountain of overspending, overeating, smoking another pack of cigarettes, having one more drink, watching one more pornographic movie, holding one more grudge, or whatever else our vice is one more time. We want Him to turn His head as we partake in one more sin, knowing He wants us to change but denying Him the power to help us. Instead, we wish He'd change His foundational truths and allow us to have our way. We feel entitled to our way. Why should we change? He created us, knowing we'd be born with this innate desire to do things we know are against His will. So why change?

I spoke with my pastor earlier today, and he shared with me that he preached about the man at the Pool of Bethesda this past Sunday. (I was laid up with a migraine and upset stomach, so I missed church.) He mentioned how the man had to want to be healed and how that healing didn't come the traditional way. The man wouldn't step into the pool's water as it was stirred. Instead, his healing would come another way. A different way. Through the Great Physician Himself.

So often we get hung up on the idea that our healing, that changes in our lives, can only come one way. Yet God has many ways of working out the changes needed in our lives. Jesus told the woman at the well her life story, but when the accusers stood with stones before Mary Magdalene, He simply drew in the sand. While Jesus took one outside the city, another had to press into the crowded streets. What He does to make the changes occur in my life may be entirely different than what He does to make the changes in yours. Because we're each a unique individual, and He knows exactly what we need.

Photo Courtesy of Caltiva

The question is, will we honestly allow Jesus to put us through the Refiner's Fire, enduring the process in order to see the change brought to completion? Will we endure the heat, the chiseling, and the forging? Will we trust Him to give us the strength we need to see the procedure through? Or, will we do as we usually do and give up at the first sign of a flame? Will we go around that mountain again, expecting God to change, unwilling to change ourselves?

Will we see our 2012 resolutions through? Will the pain of remaining the same be more painful than that of changing?

What changes would you like to have God's help with in your life in 2012?