Change

“Most of the important things in the world have been accomplished by people who have kept on trying when there seemed to be no hope at all.”
– Dale Carnegie

Isn’t this the truth? We all hope to be there (wherever there is for each one of us). Yet, on the journey towards that goal there are unexpected stops, things that waylay us and circumstances that don’t cooperate with our plans.

To each of us who are struggling – with health issues, with job loss, with difficult relationships, with budgets that just won’t balance, with a hard day – remember this promise:

“being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.”*

By the phrase, “Until the day of Christ Jesus” we understand that apparently God is clear on something we often forget: change takes time. Patience means, “to accept or tolerate delay.” Maybe that’s why it’s listed among the fruits of the Spirit in Galatians 5. It doesn’t come natural to us, but is something Supernatural that happens when God comes and lives in us.

Being a Christ follower means seeing redemption in every situation, in every person, in every relationship, realizing that all the way up to “the day of Christ Jesus” God is working change in us and in everyone around us.
In order to be a force for good for the Kingdom of God in the world, we must persist even when the natural temptation is to give up. We must press on, despite delay. In hope, in belief, that God is at work, even in the situation you’re facing now.

Change takes time. May you and I have the grace, the hope and the patience to press on.

– Pastor Tara VinCross

* Philippians 1:6