LORD, Let me Learn to: Embrace Change

As I mentioned in my last post, my husband was facing a job change...which meant a church change for all of us.  Being uprooted from our church family, who I particularly had grown deep roots with, has been a challenging change to think about.  In fact, I think I had attempted to protect myself by not thinking about it too much.

Well, last Sunday, he was officially voted in as the new Worship Leader!😊😢😊😢

This morning was our first official Sunday in this new role.

I find myself with sadness of leaving friends and joyful anticipation of how God will work in this new setting.

Here I am in a place of building new relationships, starting over, and the awkwardness that comes with all this change.

In my time with the LORD this morning before leaving for church, I was asking God to remind me of my identity in Him.  As usual, I went to Ephesians 1 for the Truth of who I am in Christ.

     ~Redeemed
     ~Forgiven
     ~Lavished with the Riches of His Grace
     ~Having obtained an inheritance
     ~So that I might be for the praise of His glory
     ~Sealed with the promised Holy Spirit

Who I am and my identity are secure in Christ no matter what the people at the new church think of me.

I kept reading and was reminded of a passage that has spurred me on time and again.

Ephesians 4:11-16

Through this passage, along with other passages that talk about the Body of Christ (1 Corinthians 12, Romans 12), I am convinced that each believer in Christ has an important role to play in the Church, the Body of Christ, so that, as verse 16 says, "when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love."

I have a part in this new church body, so that it will continue to "build itself up in love" and "all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ." (v. 13)

And so, I walked in with that heart and mindset.  I freely exercised the relational gifts God has given me and chose to be unhindered by my insecurities.  And God blessed.

It was a worshipful morning and one of encouragement and joy, free from the current burdens the enemy wants to weigh me down by.

Praise to You, O Christ!

And I don't think it was coincidence that today's sermon was on Romans 8:14-17, which declares us children of God who are fellows heirs with Christ!  (Sounds familiar from Ephesians 1:))

My identity and joy are in Christ no matter the circumstances...I can embrace this change that God has brought about because my identity in Christ is constant and secure.

Praise to You, O Christ!