Want Your Change?

I hate it when I go to pay a $12 meal tab with a $20 bill and the server asks me, "Do you want your change?" Um. Yes. I believe in tipping well, but not that well. Of course I want my change! Or do I? When it comes to the most important kind, maybe I'm pretty quick to say, "No, actually. Why don't you keep it?"

The apostle Paul writes to Christians: You yourselves cheat and do wrong, and you do this to your brothers! Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God?. . . And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God. (1 Cor. 6:8-11)

Four things about character jump out at me here: 1) People can change ("that is what some of you were"). 2) Believers should change ("you were washed, you were sanctified..."). 3) Many of us have not changed ("you yourselves cheat and do wrong"). And 4) Without real change, people show that they have not truly received God's Kingdom, his reign, and will miss its glorious culmination ("the wicked will not inherit the Kingdom of God").

In my own life first and also in my ministry, I must recognize that transformation--getting better--doesn't happen mystically or passively. God isn't likely to just zap me and change me. It's a process. And its a process that requires my intentionality, not just my good intentions (if, in fact, I even have them--a lot of believers I know don't seem to have any intention of changing).

It first takes seeing what areas that I need change. Next it takes wanting to change. Then it takes asking my Savior King to change me on a daily basis while I engage myself in spiritual practices that will help facilitate that change.

Lord, I don't want to stay stuck in the same old weaknesses that limit me and diminish my capacity for the full life that you want to give me. I really do want my change. I really do want your Kingdom to come and your will to be done on earth, starting in my own heart. Amen.