You asked for it!
“It is difficult to make predictions, especially about the future.” Yogi Berra
As a former foster kid and pastor who has ministered in multiple states, I have moved 17 times.
And now, suddenly and without warning, some of you are sad for me.
You think all those moves must have been because of something negative or traumatizing. So many believers default to negativity when faced with such change and think big changes must be bad.
They were not. Not all of them.
Some of you might not even believe it. But in many of those moves, I felt the words of 2 Peter 1:21 For prophecy never had its origin in the human will, but prophets, though human, spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.
John 3:8 states: The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.”
We just had two tornadoes touch down within a few miles or our home. We had to take cover, then afterward examine property. We also checked on church members and then gathered volunteers and headed over to help people in need helping to clean up all the change that took place. The wind was violent and brought a great deal of change to each of the affected communities.
Some of our leaders felt led by the Holy Spirit to change the mid week church functions and instead lead their groups to go help our neighbors, friends, and, in some cases, extended family.
People usually struggle with change. You might struggle with change even more than others.
Christians, in particular, seem to grapple with change. Jesus’ literal actions change time. The calendar now reads B.C or A.D or BCE or C.E.
However you label it, the label is not what’s important. What truly matters is the event that led to this monumental change.
That event was Jesus Christ’s death and miraculous resurrection. This created a seismic shift in the course of human history, shaped our current calendar, and continues to influence billions worldwide.
And yet…
What do we try and celebrate?
Traditions…
Or the enshrining of a lack of change to venerate a moment we believe is holy and set apart by God himself. We call these days Holy days “Holidays”…But then we do it.
We celebrate “Traditions.”
This is not necessarily a bad thing.
But for Christians, it might inadvertently teach us to hold on tightly to the wrong things.
Jesus came to bring change, then He told us to go into all the world and teach others to obey all that He commanded (Matthew 28).
Why do we think that when we get involved in church, change will not be a part of our lives?
Why do we think that our church should not change when a new pastor comes, or a new church is established in our community, or new members are added to the church, or people get baptized, or our children or grand children are called to be missionaries, or politicians, or doctors, or lawyers, or scientists.
Why do we struggle with change when our church grows. When new classes are established.
After all….Didn’t we pray for this?
Whatever do you mean? I didn’t pray for this…
Oh…yes. You did.
Matthew 6:9-13 in the King James Version, no less, says:
9 After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name.
10 Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.
11 Give us this day our daily bread.
12 And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.
13 And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen.
For some of us politics are changing, prices are changing, medications are changing freedoms are changing. If we could just have church not change…that would be nice. But then we would be in charge and not God.
Did you think that verse 10 would not involve change?
Change to you? Change to your vocation? Change to your church? Change to it’s leadership, it’s schedule of events? Or it’s style of how it presents the gospel as the culture changes?
After all…You asked for it.
You asked for change when you asked for God’s Kingdom to come. Did you think nothing would change when you prayed that prayer in church or at home? Does that make that prayer dangerous to your way of life now? Will you be thinking twice as your whole congregation mutters that prayer again in church next time?
A story is told of a woman who lived in a small rural community for her entire life. Her husband had a good job with the county and they were financially comfortable. One day she was taking a bubble bath and relaxing after a long day. As was her custom she would do a little Bible study, devotional, and prayer time while she relaxed in the bubble bath. As she began to pray for her community, her church and the missionaries that the church supported one by one the Holy Spirit began to speak to her about her daughter. Her beautiful, kind, accomplished, and intelligent daughter. The Holy Spirit began show her a vision of her daughter on the mission field as a missionary. A role that would take her far far away from her mother and their rural community. The woman suddenly began to weep and audibly cried out, “NO GOD! Don’t take my daughter. Take anyone else but not my daughter!”
She did not see change coming.
She was fine with praying for God to move in people’s lives until the change affected her and those she loved.
But God was preparing that momma for change.
Churches who often hold fast to the strongest traditions are often the ones most pious while they pray for change. But are also the ones who fight the hardest against change when the Holy Spirit brings it. Sometimes they fight change so hard they break their churches.
What do you think Jesus thinks about when he hears the Lord’s Prayer prayed in church and those prayers reach the incense bowls of heaven as He sits at the right hand of God the Father? Does He hold back on change and deny the Holy Spirit’s movement in your church or in your life because He knows that what you just prayed, you really didn’t mean? Or do you think He honors your muttering prayer request in church sometimes weekly or as special holidays when the pastor directs, “Let’s all pray the Lord’s prayer together.”
What about vs 11? Will Jesus answer your prayer, “Give us this day our daily bread,” Will it require a relocation? A change in your vocation? Maybe Jesus will provide a season of the appearance of silence in your life or a desert season so you will trust Him more often and more genuinely, more earnestly, or gratefully when He answers your prayer for basic provision. So you will be taught by God how to pray…Really pray.
I have heard some pastors even question my own calling when God has called us to a different state. They question if it is God. God has never spoken to them in this way. How could God expect you to root up your whole family and move. Not once, but several times. How could such a thing be God’s will? Interim Pastor and former Wisconsin Northern Michigan Network Superintendent Joel Pavia has said, if God is calling a pastor to leave, then God must be calling a pastor to come. Is it really that simple? Why yes. But we must embrace change to discover God’s will.
What if Jesus wants to answer your prayer when you look at Him and say, “Lord, teach us how to pray.”…And now…That’s exactly what He is doing by giving you this day, your daily bread.
What if it require change?
But you don’t see it that way. You see it as an inconvenience, as moments of frustration. As a tearing away from everything you think you hold dear and love. What if your factory or processing plant closes down where you have worked for decades, and God is providing a new role for you in a new place? “give us this day our daily bread…” Indeed.
But remember…You asked for it.
How about vs 12? “Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors.” Is Jesus strictly talking about money? No.
The Amplified Bible says, “‘And forgive us our debts, as we have forgiven our debtors [letting go of both the wrong and the resentment].
My son came to visit us from college the other day. I mentioned someone who had wronged us and tried to hurt us. My son, being gone from the family for several months, spoke up from the back seat and said, “What I find interesting about the whole situation is that y’all keep bringing them up.” Ouch.
He was right.
Letting go of both the wrong and the resentment takes time, but that doesn’t mean we stop trying….and after all. We asked for it when we prayed through Matthew 6:12. And that requires change on our part. My son had changed during his time away from our family. We had not. And he noticed and pointed it out. But when we prayed, God expected us to change. After all, we asked for things to change that we would forgive. Didn’t we? Yes we did.
What bout Matthew 6:13?
If we are not to be led into temptation that will require change. It will require us not to go places we used to go, with people we used to go with, not doing things we used to do. Maybe not stocking our fridge with certain items, or not stocking our “secret fridge” with things we don’t want the church fellowship group to see when they come over, not watching certain shows, or accessing certain apps or websites.
But again…We asked for this change.
We also asked to be delivered from evil. This may mean we go to college, but maybe not the same college our parents went to. Or the same path our family has always taken. Rights of passage may need to change for the believer to be a succeeder.
It may require becoming a better parent so as not to repeat the lifecycle of previous family “values” that led to addictive or destructive behavior.
I am always amazed at the “hood” mentality.
I remember I met a young man trying to make a difference in his community. But he struggled with the “hood” mentality. The desire to puff up and remind everyone that you are part of the neighborhood. And because of that nobody better mess with you.
“I’m from the neighborhood,” he would say, “Don’t mess with me; I’ll knock you out and leave you a bus pass to get home when you wake up!”
It was a mantra he would chant often after introducing himself to strangers. Who’s gonna mess with him after that challenge?
“This is MY neighborhood. My friends are here, my family is here, I can’t leave.”
“Yes, you can,” I challenged him.
Rural communities can be this way, too.
I had lived in a rural community for almost four years. I was asked one day, “Don’t you know who such and such family is?”
Some people change so little they become associated with a town, city, or neighborhood.
I once asked someone about a person I met, “Describe for me this person’s personality.” They did not hesitate. “They are…,” and then they named the small rural town where the person grew up. The person was a believer but embodied the lack of change in their community by their “faithfulness.” And people looked up to them precisely because they did not change. It was like not changing was THE most important value.
Constant
Faithful
Enduring
All good words. Until we pray the Lord’s prayer. Then they may stand in the way of God’s movement through the Holy Spirit in the life of believers who refuse to change in the face of Matthew 6:9-12 or Matthew 28.
It’s not good to be all over the map, always changing, running, avoiding, inconsistently living or fearfully changing because of superstition or intentional avoiding of accountability. But it’s also not good to deny change in your life or in the lives of those around you as a believer in Jesus simply because it’s change.
Sometimes I think we hide behind “faithfulness” because we fear change as believers in Jesus.
What about you?
Is everything supposed to stay the same around you forever and ever, Amen?
That doesn’t seem to be the way of Jesus. Something is always going to change.
After all, when you prayed to Him, change came.
And if we are to be honest, when you prayed, you asked for it.
So rather than fighting it, denying it, attacking your pastor, leaving your church, quitting your job, throwing a fit, yelling at your kid, disagreeing with your spouse or rebelliously being a keyboard warrior. What if you asked…God, Is this the answer to a prayer I prayed for? How could it be, Lord? If it is help me to understand it, and walk in holiness and change with you. Forgive me for my stubbornness regarding change, lead me not into the temptation of being upset when change comes, and deliver me from the evil of refusing to embrace change.
After all Lord, I asked for it.