Change and I have always had a love/hate relationship. But this past year, the Lord asked our family to take more steps of faith than ever before.
We moved to the south, leaving loved ones behind. We started a new business and transitioned out of old jobs. We planted ourselves in a fresh faith community and began to build friendships. I launched my first book, which was both exhilarating and exhausting. Our kids needed homeschooling because it was the more comforting option amid constant transitions.
Now I find myself immersed in this ever-shifting environment, navigating the waters of change as it ebbs and flows through the different areas of our lives. When will things settle? When will the waters still or at least calm down?
The Lord recently brought a vision to mind of me standing before the Red Sea. Like Moses, I lifted my staff high, with one foot barely in the water, declaring my belief in God’s capacity to do what I cannot. Even if my faith was the size of a mustard seed, I stood and waited for God to part the impassable.
But then He asked me to do something different. Something new and bold, beyond what I could come up with on my own. Jesus reached down, took my hand, and pulled me up onto the waves.
Instead of parting the sea, sometimes God asks us to walk on water.
In the book of Isaiah after the prophet recounts what the Lord had done at the Red Sea, he quotes God saying, “But forget all that— it is nothing compared to what I am going to do. For I am about to do something new. See, I have already begun! Do you not see it?” (Isaiah 43:18-19 NLT)
Change, while it can be hard, also ushers in new seasons. New works of God. New adventures. New challenges but also new blessings. Change is a necessary and unavoidable part of our existence. Whether it’s inner work, outer adjustment or varying circumstances, God will ask us to step into new terrain with Him.
Christ calls us to live an ever-growing, always-adjusting, continually-moving life because sanctification is not a stagnant process. Growth and healing are intentional decisions that are always accompanied by change and a constant God.
Fear and worry can prevent us from seeing the good that is tied in with the new. And so, God asks us to trust Him and remember His faithful promise to be near. Uncertainty gives us the opportunity to experience the certainty of Christ’s character.
The next time change seems scary or overwhelming remember – it will always be matched by the extravagant provision, power, and care of God.
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