Fear of Change

Good morning! I hope you’ve had a great weekend and that your week is off to a good start. This weekend was a busy one for me and the semi-annual re-adjustment of the clock didn’t help my state of rest any either.

This morning I want to speak to you about being open to change. As people we are most generally creatures of habit. When we go to a restaurant we tend to order the same selections. We take the same routes back and forth to work. We follow the same routine each and every morning or each evening when we got to bed.

This consistent ongoing routine creates an environment of familiarity. When we are then challenged with a new idea or practice we tend to fight, resist or flee. Today I want us to think about being open to the challenge of change.

When I assess potential church planters I often ask this question: “Describe for me a time when you resisted a change that really needed to be made?” Many times God allows us to come to a crossroads of faith or as Henry Blackaby calls it in his book Experiencing God, “A Crisis of Belief.” This is a place where God challenges your comfort and routine with a decision of faith. This decision often requires you to leave your comfort zone and step out with God, trusting in His sovereignty and strength or remaining where you are, “safe” within you comfort zone.

In the Old Testament, the Israelites came to one of these crossroads as well. God had promised to give them the Promised Land of Canaan, but when they spies returned, they gave a report of giants in the land. The people had a choice, take God at His word or give into their fears and stay put.

Psalm 106:24-25 (NLT)

The people refused to enter the pleasant land,

for they wouldn't believe his promise to care for them.

[25] Instead, they grumbled in their tents

and refused to obey the Lord.

The Israelites chose to stay put and because of their actions faced another 40 years of wandering in the desert. They could not see past their fears and discomfort to the promise of deliverance that God had already given them.

So many times I find that when God brings me to these crossroads of faith, He is trying to take my relationship with Him to a new level. What He asks me to give up and surrender is always difficult. Maybe it is a long held belief, a tradition, or even issues of comfort (financial, relational, lifestyle, etc..). What I find is that each time God asks me to give up something, He always has something better that He wants to give in return.

Ultimately my decisions come down to personal obedience. When I refuse to allow this God inspired change to take place in my life, I am refusing to allow Him to mold me as He sees fit.

This week you may find your self having a “Crisis of Belief.” If so I want to encourage you to admit your fears to God. Share with Him your reservations and doubts, but then commit to follow His lead, even though it means change in your life. In the long run you will be blessed by your step of faith and your intimacy with God will increase.

Until next Monday, may God’s richest blessings be yours this week.

Carl