"If we want to change things, we must first change ourselves. If we want to play — if we want to change the world — we must first show up on the field to score."
— Paul Rusesabagina
If there's one thing that we all want, it's change for the better. We want our circumstances, marriages, ministries, jobs, or relationships to change for the better. But when faced with a challenge to first experience change within ourselves, we back out of the opportunity to do so.
The first few months of marriage for me was like that. I was always praying to God saying, "Lord, change Ces' heart," when all the while God was wanting to change mine. In many ways that applies to everything, even in things as big as national issues.
America just recently concluded another election period where a leader was just chosen to supposedly bring more changes for the better for a whole nation. We want better healthcare, better jobs, better living conditions and so on. And while leaders do have a role to play in doing so, unless we pick ourselves up and do our part, the changes that leaders will bring will never be enough.
This couldn't be more true for Christians.
In 2 Chronicles 7:14, God says to His people, the Israelites, "If my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land."
The message hasn't changed one bit.
If we want God to change things for the better and bring healing upon our land, there must first be an internal healing within the hearts of his people, which will bring humility to us and cause us to pray and seek God in a way that we've never done before. We need new hearts, and we need it now.
God gives us that chance to see a change of hearts within all of us, and that happens only through the work of Christ in our lives. We might often think that this is a message that we Christians have outgrown, but no one outgrows the need for more of Christ. It doesn't matter how long you've been a Christian. We all need more of Christ and more of His internal change.
2 Corinthians 5:17 says, "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come."
Before we start seeing external and large-scale change, we must first start with small internal change within ourselves. Only then can God humble us and then heal our land.
