By: Pastor Jarren Rogers

“Change is inevitable. Growth is optional.” – John Maxwell

It will be different when…

This is a thought that pops into the head of everyone at one time or another. Usually, in a time of distress or aggravation, this phrase reveals itself in the vernacular of someone who has had enough. 

In our spiritual lives, it rears its ugly head whenever we fail another time, when we come up short, when sin enters our life once more.

It will be different once work calms down. It will be different when classes are out. It will be different when we get out of debt. It will be different when the kids get older. It will be different when…fill in the blank.

Too often we believe that if our circumstances change, our spiritual lives will change as a result. If our situation changes, maybe the difficult portions of our lives will change for the better. 

The sad truth is that it is rarely different when our circumstances change. While we may experience short-term success in our spiritual lives at the change of our situation, the same temptations, the same sins, the same pitfalls, always tend to creep back into our heart and life. 

Even though work has calmed down, you still struggle with sin. Even though the kids have moved out your marriage is still in the dumps. Even though you’re out of debt you still fail to handle your money well. 

The good news is this: you don’t have to wait for your circumstances to change in order to experience change in your spiritual life. 

God has gifted us with the power of free will. This means that we have the power to initiate change in our life at any time. This doesn’t mean that we are the ones doing the changing, though. Rather, we have the power to call out to God and depend on Him for the change in our spiritual lives that we so desperately desire. 

If we rely on our circumstances to fuel the change in our lives, we will never be able to be molded into the people we are called to be. Our situations change so often, it can be difficult to ever get our heads above water.

But we don’t have to rely on our ever-changing circumstances. Instead, we should ground ourselves in Jesus Christ. And Scripture tells us this about our God:

“Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever” (Hebrews 13:8).

It is when we put our hope and our lives in the hands of the never-changing Jesus Christ that we will finally begin to be molded and shaped into his image. Darkness is driven out and sin is washed away, not whenever our circumstances changes, but whenever He comes on the scene. 

There is only one instance in which it will truly “be different when…”

It will be different when I finally hand over all that I am and all that I have to Jesus Christ.