Make A Change

“Stop bringing meaningless offerings! Your incense is detestable to me. …learn to do right! Seek justice, encourage the oppressed. Defend the cause of the fatherless, plead the case of the widow.”
Isaiah 1:13a & 17

Change is hard, especially change that calls for us to stop doing something the way we’ve always done something. I had been talking to a friend about a new high school being built in our community. My friend was impressed by the facilities and the technology that would be used to facilitate activities and learning. That conversation led to a discussion about how much school had changed from our parent’s experience with school to now. My friend made a very telling and truthful comment to the effect “imagine if the schools hadn’t changed with the times – students would still be going to the one-room schools our parents went too.” Yep. I wonder if there was a lot of stress when someone decided that school needed to change.

In this week’s passage God through Isaiah is imploring the people to let go of what had become meaningless ritual and to live how He meant for them to live – loving Him and others. You see their hearts had hardened and they brought their sacrifices for all the wrong reasons. The prophet Micah would echo Isaiah when he told the people “…what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God” (Micah 6:8).

Jesus turned the “religion” of his time on its head making it clear that not only had their rituals become cold business transactions, but that their rules were getting in the way of their relationships with God and others. From then on every step that the Apostles made meant change was going to happen and it was hard. What we call “The Church” now looks quite different from what it did in the first century. Through the centuries the church has changed, those religious communities that didn’t change with the times or that lost sight of what it means to love God and love others died. It’s still happening today and will continue to happen until the Lord comes back.

Change is hard. Whether we like it or not sometimes we must change. Jesus loved us so much that is paid an unfathomable price so that we could be radically changed forever. Whatever change you are being called too – personal, business, relational, or church. He’ll be with you, guiding each step and providing everything you need. Go ahead… Make a change – He has something amazing waiting for you on the other side – something better than you can imagine.

A Prayer
Father – you know how quickly our hearts can harden, how quickly we let rules and how we’ve always done things get in the way of our relationship with you and the work you have for us to do. We don’t like change, but sometimes we need to have our hearts broken by the same things that break your heart. Help us daily to follow you into the change you have not only for our lives, but also into the change you have for your whole family. In the name of Jesus, who leads us into change we pray – Amen.