One thing in life is certain and that is change. Change is difficult. It takes great courage. In our mobile society we see it often. Jobs require that we transfer or relocate. We leave our house we like, our congregation we love and where we feel comfortable.  We make new friends and try to find our niche in the new group of Christians etc.  It is hard but there is some good in change of this sort. It teaches us that life here is only temporary. We tend to forget, and need to be reminded. .
 We must pray for wisdom when considering making a change (Jas. 1:55).  Not all changes are necessary. However, there is one area of our life that should be in a state off constant change and that is in the inner man. This change is not optional.  It is absolutely necessary.  A lack of change in the inner man will leave us spiritually dwarfed, even dead (Heb. 5:12-14; 1 Pet .2:2).
 When we first became a Christian we made a spiritual transformation. We put off the old man or woman, crucified him and became dead to sin.  We became alive to God (Rom. 6:6, 11).   We became a new creature (11 Cor.5: 17).  PRAISE GOD!  Life in Christ was wonderful!  But perhaps along the way we have forgotten the change we took on.  The old man is still present in the new life and expresses himself in corrupting deeds. (Eph.4:14- 23) He must be put to death again and again (Col.3: 5-10).

How can I know?

 How can I know that I need to make some changes?  It is so easy to be self-deceived.   “Who can understand his errors?” (Psa .19:12)  My sisters hesitate to exhort me. Perhaps they fear my reaction. My husband could have told me, maybe he did and I would not listen.  There are many signs that indicate that I should make some changes in my Christian walk.  I must do some soul searching.  I must ask God to help me see myself as I truly am. (Perhaps I could not bear to look).  I must pray, “Search me O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts: And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting”.(Psa. 139:23, 24).  “Examine me, O Lord, and prove me; try my reins and my heart”.  “Teach me to do thy will”... (Psa. 26:2; 143:10).  I must look into God’s word the Perfect Law of Liberty, and observe myself.  I cannot go away and forget what I saw. I must continue in it, not being a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the word. This observation could tempt me to stop running the race.  I may see the changes that have to be made and judge myself too weak to change. When I do this, do I not doubt the power of God and His word?

How Can I do it?

 The changes look so difficult. Where will I get the strength to make such changes?  These old habits have been with me so long, they are second nature.   “Being confident of this very thing, that He which hath begun a good work in you will perform (perfect) it until the day of Jesus Christ” (Phil.1: 6).  “For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do His good pleasure” (Phil.2: 13).  His word is powerful. (Heb.4: 12) Paul told the Corinthians,  "But we all with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed (transformed) into the same image from glory to glory even as by the Spirit of the Lord.”  11Cor. 3:18)  “The things which are impossible with men are possible with God” (Lk.18: 27) .  I CAN DO IT WITH GOD’S HELP! (Phil.4:13)

    Lord now indeed I find
    Thy power and Thine alone
    Can change the leper’s spots -- And melt the heart of stone. 

I can change.

 After observing and detecting changes that must be made, I will pray for God’s strength, take courage and set about to make correction.  It will begin with confessing my sin to God and asking His forgiveness. “Wherefore I abhor myself and repent in dust and ashes” (Job 42:6).  If I have sinned against others, I must also go to them and ask their forgiveness. “He that covereth his sins shall not prosper: but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall find mercy.”   (Prov.28: 13)  This will take humility, a poorness of spirit.
  My thought process must change. (Col. 3:2; Phil. 4:8) for as a man thinketh in his heart, so is he (Prov. 23:7).  Radical surgery might be in order.  Remember, I am: “laying aside every weight and the sin which so easily ensnares me”   (Heb.12: 1).  “ If your right eye causes you to sin, pluck it out and cast it from you; for it is more profitable for you that one of your members perish than for your whole body to be cast into hell” (Matt.5: 29). This will be a painful process. It will devastate my pride. I must continue on.  I will not let remorse and depression take hold of me and paralyze my efforts in serving my God.
 Remember King David after his sin with Bathsheba.  Nathan the prophet confronted him with “Thou art the man”.  He repented but the consequences were great.  Evil from his own house would rise up against him and his son by Bathsheba would die. While the child was sick David fasted, prayed and lay all night upon the earth. When the child died, David arose from the earth and washed himself and changed his clothing and came into the house of the Lord, and worshipped (Sam.12 :).  He did not wallow in self-pity and depression. “Forgetting those things that are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus” (Phil.3: 13b).

God is merciful.

  “The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and plenteous in mercy. As far as the east is from the west, so far hath He removed our transgressions from us” (Psa. 103:8, 12).  When we have repented the Lord remembers our sin no more. We are forgiven and free from sin and free to continue to grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. What a blessing!

    Bring Christ your broken life, 
    Somarred bysin,
    He willcreate anew, make whole again;
    Your empty wasted years, He will restore.
    And your iniquities remember no more.

                Wilma Hendrick