10 Scriptural Reasons You Can Change - 6

Reason God says you can CHANGE #6:

"God has put us into the CHURCH, the FAMILY of the CHANGING."

We don't change alone. Besides the ceaseless activity of the Trinity for our change, we are part of the most dynamically changing family on earth - the CHURCH. Consider:

• "To each one is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good" 1 Corinthians 12:7
• "...Speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love" Ephesians 4:15-16
• "...Let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near" Hebrews 10:24-25
• "As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another" Proverbs 27:17

Just as our Father in Heaven is determined to make us like Jesus, so we should be with one another. When you are about to meet with another brother or sister for lunch or coffee, do you ask the Lord to help you help THEM to grow? We have the ability to help our brother grow through the indwelling Spirit and His gifts and through the Word dwelling richly within us.

I shudder to think where I would be if it were not for the encouragement, rebuke, correction, wise counsel, and empathetic love of brothers and sisters throughout the years of my Christian journey. A sister who confessed her bitterness towards me that was provoked by my joking about her husband; a public school teacher who encouraged me as a teacher of the Word one summer; a brother who was willing to speak the truth in love about my self-absorption in conversation with others; a fellow elder who shared that he felt I did not really love the sheep in our church; a brother who corrected my false thinking about a certain relationship with a woman who became my wife (!); a professor who gave me strong encouragement to pursue pastoral ministry; a believing wife who mirrors to me my impatience with my precious daughters; a brother who greatly challenges me by his passion for the lost...these and hundreds and hundreds of others have been CHANGE AGENTS in the hands of the Head of the Church in my life.

How about you? Who has God used to change you? Who has God used YOU to change?

Let us PRAY that God will make us more than ever change agents in the lives of our brothers and sisters and that He will graciously do the same through them for us...How we NEED them...How they NEED us. We are both NEEDED and NEEDY.