Make a Change and Make a Difference

Do you long for something more? Is there a nudging in your spirit that your life was meant for more? If you answered yes to the foregoing questions, here are a couple of other important questions to ask yourself: Should I allow another year to come and go and find me still living in the same old way? What will it take for me to make the change?  Check this out. Two leprous men with no food and no future initiated an event that would turn an entire city around, because they were willing to take a chance (read II Kings 7). These lepers were outsiders. Leprosy was an alone disease unless you could hang out with lepers just like yourself who also had no hope and nowhere to go. They were not welcome in the city. They could not mingle with “normal” people. If they had wives or children, they could not hug them or even dare to go near them. With that kind of future, most people could care less about whether others survive. But these lepers, because they refused to stay in the same place and die, changed the outcome for themselves and an entire city. Neither would have survived, had the lepers not dared to do the unimaginable. These leprous men who had no real insight into whether they would live, and no real apparent future, refused to sit around, pity themselves and do nothing. They took a shot at life. For them it was a 50/50 chance but they took it anyway. And, they did it not because someone dared them or threatened them, but they did so to change their obvious plight and in doing so, they changed the plight or course of the whole city. There are people (family, friends and some you don’t even know) who are waiting for you to make that change. Their destiny is somehow connected to yours in a way that you may not even realize, and your change will also initiate something that will be life-changing for them too.  Perhaps you have been talking about change, but each year comes and goes and you are still where you were at the beginning. You make excuses to ease your guilt, but nothing changes. You promise to do better each time, but discouragement and fear of the unknown keep you sidelined. You only have but so much time. Why waste it doing things that you hate? Why waste it doing things that you will regret? Why waste it doing nothing? Why allow yourself to be robbed of the blessings of living in Christ when all you have to do is take a step in the right direction—toward Jesus, the Christ who paid the debt for your sins on the cross?  There is hope for everyone in Christ Jesus. Jesus said, “All that the Father giveth Me shall come to Me; and him that cometh to Me I will in no wise cast out” (John 6:37). Don’t allow the devil to go on robbing you of the life that Christ died for you to have and enjoy. Jesus also said, “The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly” (John 10:10). But how can you discover this life? By discovering who Jesus is. Jesus is the Son of God. Jesus is the way—the way to eternal life, to a new you: a changed you. He is the truth—the truth that you are searching for and need to know. He is the life—the better life that you are longing to attain because you are tired of the same old, same old (see John 14:6). You can take the first step now. If you would “Draw nigh to God … He will draw nigh to you” (James 4:8).  Call on Jesus today and give him the chance to handle your tomorrows. He invites us to, “Call unto Me, and I will answer thee, and show thee great and mighty things, which thou knowest not” (Jeremiah 33:3). He wants you to experience the greatest life you could ever live and the way to do this is to experience the love of God. I invite you to take this moment right now to confess your sins, ask for His forgiveness and invite Him into your heart. Make Jesus Lord of your life and let the journey begin to a greater future. Make a change today and make a difference in your tomorrows. — Rev. Cynthia Brathwaite