Why Is Change So Difficult?

 "Change is as inexorable as time, yet nothing meets with more resistance." - Benjamin Disraeli”

We live in a changing world, but most of us resist and even fight against change.  Unfortunately, the majority only want change if it will personally benefit them.

There are some things that are unchangeable.  The veracity and the authority of Scripture should never be considered as a subject which is open to our whims and opinions.  God is clearly seen as the One who is changeless throughout eternity.  Truth is true whether the opinions of the majority would discount it, and lies will be deceptive regardless of the trappings that Satan, religion, and mankind would embellish them.

Change is a painful topic for many of us.  Perhaps the local church is one the best examples of a microcosm that resists change with fierceness and tenacity.  Many of our churches saw their greatest time of effectiveness during the decades between 1950 through 1980, and we continue trying to reach the world of 2014 with the methods that worked well in the past.  While we must hold with conviction our Biblical foundations, we must realize that we must be open to some variation in methodology to reach current and future generations.

One example of effective change is our annual Vacation Bible School.  When I was a child, VBS consisted of pledges, missionary stories, and snacks comprised of butter cookies and red Kool-Aid.  Today, we use an all-out program to capture the attention and engender enthusiasm within the kids that attend.  All of this is done so that we can have the opportunity to share the Gospel with those who may not hear it otherwise.  It's not the way our grandparents did it, but it works.  We can change the methodology without sacrificing doctrinal integrity.

Churches across America are dying and they refuse to realize it.  Perhaps the main culprit is the fact that we are too often focused on our own preferences, traditions, and tastes.  We are happy to see people come to faith in Christ as long as they adopt our way of doing things.

We need a revival that will lead us to see the lost as the Apostle Paul saw them, "For though I preach the gospel, I have nothing to glory of: for necessity is laid upon me; yea, woe is unto me, if I preach not the gospel!  For if I do this thing willingly, I have a reward: but if against my will, a dispensation of the gospel is committed unto me.  What is my reward then? Verily that, when I preach the gospel, I may make the gospel of Christ without charge, that I abuse not my power in the gospel.  For though I be free from all men, yet have I made myself servant unto all, that I might gain the more.  And unto the Jews I became as a Jew, that I might gain the Jews; to them that are under the law, as under the law, that I might gain them that are under the law;  To them that are without law, as without law, (being not without law to God, but under the law to Christ,) that I might gain them that are without law.  To the weak became I as weak, that I might gain the weak: I am made all things to all men, that I might by all means save some.  And this I do for the gospel's sake, that I might be partaker thereof with you." (I Cor.9:16-23).

Sadly, too many of us have adopted the attitude of King Hezekiah, "Then said Hezekiah unto Isaiah, Good is the word of the LORD which thou hast spoken. And he said, Is it not good, if peace and truth be in my days?" (II Kings 20:19).  Hezekiah was content to sacrifice future generations as long as he could enjoy the present with contentment.  We need to awaken to the reality that staring at our own navel will never gives us an accurate vision of the world around us that needs to know about the love and grace of God.

God help us to be willing to change according to His will!  God help me to view the needs of the world through God's lens, not just through my own filtered lens of personal perception.