God is in Charge of the Change

In my last post I talked a little about change and how Martin Luther King, Jr. would not just sit idly by and wait for much needed change to "roll in on the wheels of inevitability." Since writing that short piece I have had many more thoughts about it, because it's just not as easy as deciding to take action. Truth is, I think God is just as interested in change as are we. Furthermore, in the Life of God and in the Body of Christ, God is also in charge of the change. Or at least he always should be. And I am in charge of letting Him change me. Or at least I should be.

This is not some civil rights movement with a figurehead. This is the very mission of God on the Earth, through His people, where Christ is the Head. We must surrender all our hopes and aspirations for that "greener grass" to the One who created the grass in the first place. No one is more interested in transformed lives than God. We must not begin to think we are somehow the most important tool at His disposal. And we must not entertain the idea that if it were not for my grand ideas our church would go nowhere. God is in charge of the change.

If we force change ahead of His schedule; or if we despair because the need, in our opinion, has been too long waiting, we are in great danger of undoing the very thing God really desires, that is, the change in us. You see, I believe God is always and forevermore just as interested in working some change into our hearts at the same time He works a change into the Body as a whole. These two changes, one outward in the whole scope of God's fellowship and the other inward, in the deep recesses of my own soul, happen simultaneously. What I mean is this. If I ever set out to change something in the Body, as a matter of conviction or opinion, without being completely open to that thing or some other thing coming right back at me I will miss it. And I will likely miss God. God is always at work in both ways, inward and outward. He may even change that thing which I desire but because I remain closed to His change in me I will not see it. No. God is in charge of the change. We must always remember this. And when He changes me, and I can see that change, I give Him credit. And when He changes that thing in the Body, after or at the same time changing me, I will see it as well, and again, I will give Him the credit.

God is in charge of the change. It's His Body. Not mine. It's His movements on the Earth. I am but a thumb or another part of the Body. In the Body of Christ there should never be a great figurehead. There should always be Christ, the Head. Martin Luther King Juniors are fine for social reform. But for reforms of the Soul and of the Bride we turn only to the King of Kings. Again and again and again.

2 Corinthians 3:18
And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord's glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.