Courage for Change

Do delays, course corrections, and interruptions frustrate you? If you answered yes, you’re in company with the majority. Change is something most people don’t find comfortable.

Have you ever found yourself on the brink of something new yet lacked courage to step forward?

As empty-nesters, God has called me and my husband beyond boundaries we were once familiar with because his purposes have required deeper revelations, surrender, and trust. My picket fence plan from my younger years has lost its luster in this journey forward with the Lord.

There are seasons in every life when you have to let go of your definition of what defines you to move towards all that God has for you.

The courage for change comes from faith. It’s produced and has an opportunity to grow in trials.

James 1:2-3 says, “Consider it a great joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you experience various trials, because you know that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its full effect, so that you may be mature and complete, lacking nothing.”

Do you want to lack nothing? Trust the Lord with your trials, ask for faith, and lean into what he’s already promised.

Do you want to shake off disappointment?

“…endurance produces proven character, and proven character produces hope. This hope will not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.” Romans 5:4-5

Sometimes we limit God and cling to the comfortable when he wants to do something new in our lives.

Here are three things I’ve learned to do when change is imminent:

Remain

“I am the vine, you are the branches. The One who remains in me and I in him produces much fruit, because you can do nothing without me.” John 15:5

Jesus always remains. We are faced with the choice to abide or not. This verse is so clear that if we abide rather than resist or run, he produces fruit and gives us strength for his plans.

Rid

“Do not remember the past events, pay no attention to the things of old. Look, I am about to do something new; even now it is coming. Do you not see it? Indeed I will make a way in the wilderness, God promises to make a way through (Is. 43:16). 

Our part? Rid our thoughts of the past – choose to gaze forward. There is a promise for every problem you face.

The word rid means “to make someone or something free of”. What do you need freedom from? Or think of it this way, what doesn’t belong in your future? Is it a mindset, an activity, a relationship? The way through and forward is with Jesus.

Rise

“Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord shines over you.” Isaiah 60:1

When we remain in the Lord and let go of a white knuckle grip on what we need to release, we can rise up and walk freely and fully in all he has for our lives.

He is not only our redeemer, but also our provider and deliverer.