A Changed Perspective

Change can be hard for people. I like to think I’m someone who likes change – whether it be moving the furniture around the room or changing my hair – it feels good to switch things up, so to speak! But when it comes to deeper change, I’m not sure I’m so keen. If someone challenges my attitude to certain things or my response to situations, I can become very defensive. And as a result – increasingly entrenched in my opinions. But as Christians, change is at the heart of the gospel.

Reading Acts 9, Saul was on the road to Damascus when he was struck down by a light from heaven and a voice which said ‘Saul, Saul why do you persecute me?’ He was blinded and ate and drank nothing for three days. His physical blindness echoed his spiritual blindness. But where he started the journey ‘breathing out murderous threats against the Lord’s disciples’ (verse 1), he ended by being filled with the spirit, baptised and preaching that ‘Jesus is the Son of God’ (verse 20). What a fundamentally changed life! Paul’s Damascus road experience well and truly changed his life’s purpose and direction.

The Bible is filled with stories of such transformation. From David who found courage and strength to fight Goliath and later become King, to Zacchaeus who changed his ways after Jesus met with Him, to Jonah who found courage after God intervened through the use of a large fish. In each case, they were flawed men who God used to change and use for his glory. David ‘was a man after God’s own heart’; Zacchaeus repaid those he cheated four times the amount; and Jonah’s obedience finally led to God saving a whole city he was going to destroy.

Where we might not have experienced such a radical conversion as that on the Damascus road – the Bible says we are ‘a new creation’ when we live our lives for Jesus. God is constantly at work, transforming us and changing us into his likeness, if we allow Him to. Jesus’ initial message to those he appeared to in Capernaum in Matthew 4 was: “Turn to God and change the way you think and act, because the kingdom of heaven is near!” When we know Jesus – the work of the Holy Spirit does exactly that – changes our perspective on the situations we find ourselves in and therefore how we act.

God doesn’t promise to change what we face each day, but he does changes us on the inside by his Holy Spirit so we respond to these things differently. He promises to never leave us or forsake us, no matter what we are going through. Paul writes in his letter to the Romans: ‘let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think’ (12:2 NLT).

Do we believe this? Firstly we need to know our need to accept change, and we also need to trust that God is the one who transforms us into the image of His likeness. When we realise our own weakness and ask for God’s help, it is amazing how he highlights things in our life that need to be changed! So we don’t become defensive when others confront us, because we know that God is using situations to change us to become more like Him. This process of sanctification will continue until one day all will be changed – ‘in the twinkling of an eye at the last trumpet’ (1 Corinthians 15:52) as God will make ‘everything new’ (Revelation 21:5). Let’s keep going with an open heart and a godly changed perspective!