We need to change

We need to change.
The media put a message out that if we do not change, we will not be happy and will miss out on lots of fun and happiness. So we desire to change, because we are told that if we are slimmer, tanner, fashionably dressed, stylish, better looking, go to a different bank, have more debt, support another chain store or are better perfumed, we will be happier and more satisfied. The propaganda is put out, and we often believe it. To change our situation for the better is a desire we all have. So we desire change that will satisfy our needs.

But then we are also afraid of change. The uncertainties that change may bring, let us hold onto the status quo, not because it gives us what we desire, but because it makes us feel safe and secure. Perhaps we fear that change will make us even more unhappy than the status quo.

But we live in a dynamic world which requires us to change in order to survive and keep up with the demands made to us. We cannot keep making the same mistakes and we cannot continue with behaviour that causes us and others to suffer or be hurt.

The Gospel is all about our need to change. But the change God requires is much more than a miracle cream or perfect product or a new car or lifestyle. The Bible gives us a recipe for change that will surprise us, because it tells us that only if the very way we think and the way we are willing to sacrifice our own ideas and desires, will bring us to a place where we will be able to test what the will of God is, and that having our minds thus changed about life, and death, will bring us to a good and pleasing place.

Carefully read what Paul writes in Romans 12:1-2:
Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed (changed) by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.

Over the next 2 or three weeks we will consider this teaching in Romans 12.
But lets say it upfront: The most important change we need is to stop conforming to the ideas and propaganda of the world, to change our mind, and seek to have a mind that thinks like God thinks about our lives.