Values (Part Two): Change

"And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect."
-Romans 12:2
      The next value that I saw and chose was change. I actually wrote an entire post on this topic, so I'll try to just explain why I chose change as my value rather than explain what change is. To quickly recap, the post talked about the fact that meeting Jesus should change our lives. We shouldn't be living the same life that we've been living before we meet Jesus. Knowing God should change the way we live and change our perspective on life. When Jesus was on the earth, he often said things that the people have never heard before. He was trying to change their thoughts to His thoughts. That is His goal for us as well.
      So why did I choose change as one of my top five values? First I have to establish one premise- people are sinful. I write about that a lot, but it's very important to know this because it explains why change is important. People by nature are sinful and broken. God created us to be in constant fellowship with Him, but because of Adam's sin and our sin we broke that relationship. Our thoughts tend towards evil things, which separates us from the Holy God. The Bible says that even "all our righteous deeds are like a filthy garment (Isaiah 64:6)". This means that even when we try to do good things, they still short of God's standards.
      Knowing this, it should start to be clear why I believe that change is very important. If we don't change, we naturally we remain in our sinful state. If we remain in our sin, our relationship with God is broken and we can't repair it if we don't change ourselves. Now, I did point out earlier that even our most righteous deeds are not even good in the eyes of God. So does our change even matter then? Of course it does. The real question is how we are supposed to change ourselves. To tell you the truth, we cannot change ourselves, at least in a meaningful and spiritual way.
      We can do many things to change our physical life; we can exercise, eat differently, speak differently, or do other things. However, none of things can restore our relationship to God. The only way our relationship can be restored is if God changes us. We just have to be willing to accept His calling in our lives. He wants to change us and restore our relationship. He wants to change us to be instruments for His glory. Change is so important to me because without allowing myself to be changed by God, I am doomed. I know that change is difficult, because it means that I will look different than the world. However, my purpose in life is not be liked and accepted, it is to know Christ. In order to fulfill this purpose, I first have to be changed.
-Smart