Pastor John D Jakes

Have you given any thought lately to what Jesus can change in a life?  Sometimes, when we struggle with the Great Disconnect it seems as if we are never going to change.  There are two ways we change if Jesus is in control of our life.  The first way is the glamorous, amazing, and miracle level change.  You know the type: that instantaneous change.  We see it when we see an addict go cold turkey from their addiction and never look back.  They give up their stuff and get clean almost effortlessly.  We see such a change in the Bible when Jesus does miracles.  Hands are restored.  Lepers are healed.  People are raised from the dead.  I think that is what most of us think about when we hear that Jesus can change us.  That is what we are looking for.  That is what we are hoping for in ourselves, our spouse, our children, our parents, and our fellow church goers.

 

What do we do when it doesn’t happen that way?  I look at the followers of Jesus in the Bible and notice that they witnessed these types of instantaneous changes.  Peter saw his mother in law healed.  Mary and Martha saw their brother raised from the dead.  The disciples saw healings, the feeding of thousands of people, and the raising of the dead.  Yet, in every case, the disciples did not have an instantaneous change from who they were to who Jesus was making them to be.  What gives?  Where is the miracle?  Where is the change?

 

Isn’t that what we are asking in our own lives?  We ask: why am I (or someone I care about) not changing?  Doesn’t Jesus want me to be more like Him?  Why aren’t I?  It is easy to get discouraged.  Today, I want to point out that the disciples didn’t get discouraged.  They stuck with Jesus even when Jesus taught some pretty hard things.  Don’t give up.  We’ll talk next time about how the second type of change (gradual) works in our lives.  It is a miraculous process of its own that deserves some deep thinking.  Right now, don’t give up on Jesus and His working in you.  He is working.  He will not give up on you.  Don’t give up on Him.