For some time I have been frustrated with the concept of change. I have never been the type of person who likes change.  But lately, I’ve noticed that a lot of things in my life that I want to and that I know need to change, haven’t. I don’t mean circumstantial change, I mean deep change. I want to be better, to move forward, to grow but somehow I feel stuck no matter how hard I try to do things that I think will help me change for the better.

It’s frustrating when you try your best to make good changes and you don’t see any results.

When I was in high school I played Tennis. Like with any sport, I had a coach that taught me how to play and helped me to train. When you first start playing a sport you have to be taught and in order for you to get better someone has to be there to help you do it. No successful athlete has looked back and realized that they did it all on their own. As a Chrisitan, I’ve come to realize that making changes in my life and growing in my faith has little to do with my sole effort. It takes someone else to help me through it.

It’s not about me making changes to grow and become a better Christian, it’s about being changed.

Michael’ Jackson’s song “Man in the Mirror” always seemed so inspirational to me. We have to start with ourselves to make changes. We have to change what inadequacies we see in the mirror before we can tell someone else to change. It’s all very “take the plank out of your own eye” but in reality, we don’t have the ability or power to change ourselves, only Christ does.

I don’t have the power or strength to make changes in my life, to get better, to move forward. I can’t grow on my own. It’s not about me making changes but about Christ changing me.

^” Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation—if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good.”  1 Peter 2:2-3

1 Peter says that we are like newborn infants that need to be fed in order to grow. We are seeds that need to be watered, stones that need to be built up. We need Jesus and must rely on him to change us daily. True change begins with Christ. We can try to clean ourselves up and work harder but it will all be in vain. Many of us get stuck on the fact that God show’s us what we need to change in our lives and what a changed life is supposed to look like. But we forget that Jesus not only came to show us what to change, but he also came to do the changing for us.

Only the Gospel can turn our hearts to God. Only Jesus can guide us forward into the lives we are meant to live. He can heal our brokenness, fill our emptiness, and turn our weaknesses into his power. All we have to do is turn to him to do it.

^“And such were some of you. 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 Corinthians 6:11