2025-06-13
Psalm 139:23 NKJV
Change must happen inside you before it can happen around you. In an old Peanuts comic strip, Lucy tells Charlie Brown she would like to change the world. So, Charlie asks her, “Where would you start?” In typical Lucy fashion, she replies, “I would start with you.” Think about it: When we have marital problems, we sometimes pray, “Lord, help my spouse to change!” But maybe things will improve when you’re willing to pray, “Lord, help me to change!” Changing the atmosphere and dynamics in your home usually starts with changing your own actions and reactions.
The Bible says, “Be tender-hearted… keep a humble attitude… Don’t retaliate… pay them back with a blessing… [and] God… will bless you for it” (1 Peter 3:8-9 NLT). When we don’t like something, we want everybody – except us – to change! The truth is, we’re resistant to change.
In The Secret Garden, Novelist Frances Hodgson Burnett puts it like this: “At first people refuse to believe that a strange new thing can be done, and then they begin to hope it can be done, then they see it can be done – then it is done and all the world wonders why it was not done centuries ago.”
To change your world, you must first change yourself. The psalmist prayed, “Search me, O God, and know my heart; try me, and know my anxieties… see if there is any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting” (Psalm 139:23-24 NKJV). As you begin to change for the better, others will notice and react to you accordingly. So, make this your prayer today: “Lord, let the change I seek begin in me!”
Soul food: Hosea 1-5; Mark 14:27-42; Ps 139:1-6; Prov 13:21-23
2025-06-12
Filippense 3:8 NLV
Jy moet gewillig wees om die prys vir verandering te betaal. Die dramaturg en draaiboekskrywer Sidney Howard het opgemerk: ‘Die helfte van om te weet wat jy wil hê, is om te weet wat jy moet prysgee voordat jy dit kan kry.’ Verandering het altyd ‘n prys, nie noodwendig altyd in geld nie, maar ook in tyd, kreatiwiteit en energie. As dit nie iets kos nie, is die kanse goed dat dit nie ware verandering is nie!
Soos jy oorweeg om die verandering wat in jou lewe nodig is om te verbeter en te groei te maak, is dit belangrik om ook die koste van verandering met die koste van om dieselfde te bly, te vergelyk. Dit beteken dat jy jou huiswerk moet doen. Verandering bring groei mee. Dit kan egter ook hartseer meebring, veral wanneer jy sommige dinge moet laat gaan om sodoende ander te kan omhels. Wat gaan die veranderinge wat jy begeer werklik kos?
Paulus het geskryf: ‘Ja, om Christus Jesus, my Here, persoonlik te ken is só wonderlik dat ek alle ander dinge as ‘n verlies beskou. Ter wille van Hom het ek alles as verlies afgeskryf. Ek beskou dit as gemors sodat ek Christus as wins kan verkry en een met Hom kan wees… Op hierdie manier kan ek Christus persoonlik ken en die krag beleef wat Hom laat opstaan het. Deur saam met Hom te ly kry ek deel aan sy dood in die hoop dat ek die opstanding uit die dood kan beleef! Nie dat ek alles al bereik het, of al klaar volmaak is nie. Maar ek hou aan jaag om dit myne te maak omdat Christus Jesus my Sýne gemaak het!’ (verse 8-12 NLV).
Die vraag is: Hoe graag wil jy verander – en is jy gewillig om die prys te betaal?
Sielskos: 2 Kon 24-25; Mark 14:12-26; Ps 73:17-28; Spr 13:20
Philippians 3:8 NLT
You must be willing to pay the price for change. Dramatist and screenwriter Sidney Howard remarked, “One-half of knowing what you want is knowing what you must give up before you get it.” Change always costs you, if not in money, then in time, creativity, and energy. In fact, if it doesn’t cost you anything, chances are it’s not real change!
As you consider how to make the changes needed in your life in order to improve and grow, it’s important to count the cost of changing compared to the cost of remaining the same. That means you must do your homework. Change brings growth. But it can also bring grief, especially when it means letting some things go in order to embrace others. What will the changes you desire really cost?
Paul wrote: “Everything else is worthless when compared with the infinite value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have discarded everything else, counting it all as garbage, so that I could gain Christ and become one with him… I want to know Christ and experience the mighty power that raised him from the dead. I want to suffer with him, sharing in his death, so that one way or another I will experience the resurrection from the dead! I don’t mean to say that I have already achieved these things or that I have already reached perfection. But I press on to possess that perfection for which Christ Jesus first possessed me” (vv. 8-12 NLT).
The question is: How badly do you want to change – and are you willing to pay the price?
Soul food: 2 Ki 24-25; Mark 14:12-26; Ps 73:17-28; Prov 13:20
2025-06-11
1 Timoteus 4:15 NLV
Jy moet besef dat sonder verandering, daar geen vooruitgang kan wees nie. Verandering moet egter nie sonder rede plaasvind nie. Dit kan ‘n kenmerk van rusteloosheid en ‘n simptoom van innerlike konflik wees. Verandering kan groot geleenthede sowel as potensiële verliese verteenwoordig. Alhoewel alle vordering verandering meebring, bring alle verandering nie vordering mee nie. Soos die leierskapkundige Max Depree opmerk: ‘Ons kan nie word wie ons veronderstel is om te wees, deur te bly waar ons is nie.’ As jy wil groei, moet jy gewillig wees om te verander.
Generaal Douglas MacArthur het gesê: ‘Die lewe is ‘n aktiewe proses van wording. As jy nie die afgelope jaar iets by jou belangstellings gevoeg het nie, as jy dieselfde ou gedagtes dink, dieselfde persoonlike ervarings deel, dieselfde voorspelbare reaksies het, het jou persoonlikheid in rigor mortis vasgevang geword.’ Rigor mortis is die fisiese rigiditeit wat na die dood intree. Dit kan in jou verhoudings, loopbaan en geestelik intree.
In 1 Timoteus 4 is Paulus besig om sy geestelike seun Timoteus te mentor om leierskap in die kerk oor te neem wanneer Paulus nie meer daar is nie. Paulus het vir Timoteus gesê dat hy nie die mantel van leierskap kan erf bloot omdat Paulus hom liefgehad het nie; hy sal daarvoor moet werk. Dit het beteken dat hy aan homself moet werk! ‘Gee jou volle aandag aan hierdie sake. Werp jouself in jou werksaamhede sodat almal jou vordering kan sien.’
Ons almal kry geleenthede in die lewe, maar slegs diegene wat voorbereid is herken hulle en gryp hulle aan. Dit beteken dat jy bereid moet wees om te groei, aan te pas en te verander.
Sielskos: 2 Kon 21-23; Mark 14:1-11; Ps 73:1-16; Spr 13:17-19
1 Timothy 4:15 NKJV
Recognize that without change, there can be no progress. Now, we’re not advocating change for its own sake. That can be a characteristic of restlessness and a symptom of inner conflict. Change can represent great opportunities as well as potential losses. Although all progress produces change, not all change produces progress. But as leadership expert Max DePree observed, “We cannot become what we need to be by remaining what we are.” If you want to grow, you must be willing to change.
General Douglas MacArthur, hero of the Pacific War, said, “Life is a lively process of becoming. If you haven’t added to your interests within the past year, if you are thinking the same old thoughts, relating the same personal experiences, having the same predictable reactions, rigor mortis of the personality has set in.” Did you get that last sentence? Rigor mortis is the physical rigidity that sets in after death. And it can happen to you relationally, careerwise, and spiritually.
In 1 Timothy 4, Paul is mentoring his spiritual son Timothy to take over leadership in the church when Paul is no longer around. And he was letting Timothy know he couldn’t inherit the mantle of leadership simply because Paul loved him; rather, he would have to work for it. And that meant working on himself! “Meditate on these things; give yourself entirely to them, that your progress may be evident to all.”
Opportunities in life come to all of us, but they’re only recognized and grasped by those who are prepared. And that means being willing to grow, adapt, and change.
Soul food: 2 Ki 21-23; Mark 14:1-11; Ps 73:1-16; Prov 13:17-19
