Barbara Bryant
                                                      Barbara Bryant

In Malachi 3:6, God says, “For I am the Lord, I change not.” Isn’t that comforting? With all the changes we face every day, there is one thing that can never change — God.

The mind of God does not change, for God does not change. Things change and they change according to His sovereign will.

Nothing is static. Society changes, culture changes and people change. Opportunities for change are all around us. And there is nothing wrong with creating the change you want to see.

Change presents us with something different. You grow and learn new things every time something changes. You discover new insights about different aspects of your life. You learn lessons even from changes that did not lead you to where you wanted to go.

Change makes you smarter. If things never changed, you’d never learn anything new. And every time you learn a new skill — even if it’s just how to adapt — you are that much smarter than you were yesterday.

Change can be extremely powerful if you allow it. It means you are not stuck. You are moveable, in motion. You are even given an opportunity to alter the changes you make.

Change can also be a struggle because in reality you are fighting against uncertainty. We feel overwhelmed, not knowing what the future holds. We feel overwhelmed, not up to the challenges of accommodating to change.  Whether we hated the status quo or loved it, whether we were comfortable with it or not, change makes us leave behind that which we have known. We resent having to adjust to anything different than what we are comfortable with. We cry, “Why can’t we just stay the way we were?” “We can’t do that–we’ve never done it that way before.” “Maybe we’re not up to it; maybe we can’t handle it.” We reflect all of these feelings in the ways we react to change.

Sometimes we are resistant to change and we’re not even sure why. Or maybe we try to mitigate change by manipulating everyone and everything in our path. By over-organizing, micro-managing, making swift decisions or by being just plain controlling, believing that if I can direct what will happen and when, I can control the change. And if that doesn’t work, I can always turn around and blame someone else for the changes that did occur. This is an illusion. We can neither block change nor control it all of the time. For change will come, whether we want it to or not, and it is often more powerful than we are.

Change can become your greatest teacher, but only if you give yourself permission to learn from it. Instead of resisting, allow change to unfold and try to understand what’s happening and why. When we can accept change, learn from it, and become all the better for experiencing it, change is no longer our enemy. It becomes our teacher and our friend.

When you have a godly mindset you can handle change with a positive attitude. You easily adapt to new situations, new environments, and new people, when you know God is in control even if you aren’t. As a result you will not freak out or become weary when something unexpectedly shifts. You can take comfort in Jesus knowing that a God-change always triggers progress and success.

So rather than making change your enemy, adjust to the changes that come, and let God use them to lead you into your destiny.

To learn more, visit barbarabryant.com.