I am back and it feels like I have been away forever but I needed
the break and I am really excited about this next season.
I hope the year has started off well for you.
As the year has started the word on everybody’s lips and mind
is “change”. Some people usually take this time to take a stock of
where they are in life and make the required changes.
With all this talk about change and the pressure to change I think
it’s important to understand what change really is.
Change is not an immediate transformation. Change is
incremental but let me not get ahead of myself.
As I talk about change I would like to talk about Zacchaeus
(Luke 19:5)
“And when Jesus reached the place, He looked up and said to
him, Zacchaeus, hurry and come down; for I must stay at your
house today.
So he hurried and came down, and he received and welcomed
Him joyfully.”
Luke 19: 5, 6
He was the chief tax collector in Jericho. Let me say this, there
is a good chance he was mean, a swindler and so on. Look at the
people’s reaction when Jesus calls him down from the tree.
“And when the people saw it, they all muttered among themselves
and indignantly complained, He has gone in to be the guest of and
lodge with a man who is devoted to sin and preeminently a sinner.”
Luke 19:7
The people’s reaction tell us a lot about the kind of person
Zacchaeus was. This was more than a bit of jealousy. The bible
doesn’t say “a man complained” but it says “the people complained”.
If one man got upset we could challenge the idea that Zacchaeus
was a mean and unfair man but a group of people responded the
the same. That was not a coincidence.
But something happened, Jesus called Zacchaeus and stayed
at HIS house! What a privilege, what an honor! Zacchaeus
was obviously ecstatic. Look at what happens next,
So then Zacchaeus stood up and solemnly declared to the Lord,
See, Lord, the half of my goods I [now] give [by way of restoration]
to the poor, and if I have cheated anyone out of anything, I [now]
restore four times as much.
Luke 9;8
Something significant happened at that moment.
Zacchaeus declared he would give half of his goods as a way
of restoration to the poor!
What happened was what I call change.
You see, Zacchaeus didn’t declare he would never sin again, no!
That would be real change right? Wrong!
Look at what Jesus says,
” And Jesus said to him, Today is [Messianic and spiritual]
salvation come to [all the members of] this household, since
Zacchaeus too is a [real spiritual] son of Abraham;
For the Son of Man came to seek and to save that which was lost.
Luke 9: 9, 10
I have no doubt in my mind Zaccheaus was a changed man but it
would happen a bit at a time. His transformation would not take
a day but a lifetime.
This is what change is about. It’s allowing the Lord to come and
change you little by little. It’s allowing Him to deal with you
in His way. It’s allowing Him to come and open every closed
room in your heart. It’s giving Him access to the hidden
and locked places within you so He can do His work.
Change will take time friends. Transformation is for a lifetime.
You may have looked back at 2016 and seen all the things that
didn’t go according to plan and the things
that didn’t change in your life, like the habits, mindsets and
so on and got discouraged but know God is still working in your life.
He is working in a way you can’t see at times.
God doesn’t only work within the time frame of a year
but for some reason we think like this. We start at the beginning
of the year with a decision, a resolution about a change we want
to see in our lives and when the change doesn’t happened we get so
discouraged and repeat the cycle once again for another year!!
Surely that is not the way we are supposed to live.
There must be a better way.
As I close I would like you to re examine your definition of “change”
The more important question we must ask ourselves is,
How does God see change?
When He thinks of change what does it look like?
It’s great to be back friends.
God bless you.
Rolain
photo credit: google images
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