Change is coming, whether we like it or not. How do we embrace change and stand deeply rooted in Christ, when all we want to do if stay in our status quo? Let’s talk about how to embrace change when it is coming.
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Writing edit from 2019
Embracing Change When we are not Okay
Something has been happening lately, and it has been leaving me unraveled, scared, and a bit crazy. Change. I’m left with this phrase scrambling in my head, “how to embrace change?”
Change is in the wind in my world, change everywhere.
My body is changing, the amount of children I have will soon change, a possible c-section is looming in my near future, we’re making plans to put our home on the market, I’m driving a different car, our routine is changing, and finally my career is changing. That last one continues to have my heart skip a beat, my stomach lurch, and my head spin.
Here’s the truth that I’m trying my hardest not to talk about.
I’m not okay.
Not being okay, is simply a reason to dive deeper into being deeply rooted in Christ.
Sometimes God stretches us in ways that we do not anticipate. A career change, a possible c-section, additional children, moving, new cars, financial stresses, new routines, and our mind and heart seem to be spinning out of control. How to embrace change when this happens is not easy.
I think most women and mothers out there know that feeling. As women we are hard wired to care about the world we are infused into. We care about our marriages, we care about our families, we care about other peoples families, and we care deeply about how we live our lives.
When I am afraid, I put my trust in you.
Psalm 56:3-4 NIV
In God, whose word I praise—
in God I trust and am not afraid.
What can mere mortals do to me?
I’ll be honest, I don’t like where God is currently leading. I’d much rather have control and pursue the things that I want. Like some crazy control psychopath, I have a sinful wish to control the circumstances I wish to change. That desire is rooted in something just as sinful called fear.
Anxious Care and a Fierce Women
An anxious heart weighs a man down, but a kind word cheers him up.
Proverbs 12:25
Proverbs tells us that an anxious heart weigh us down. I had to go look up what that word ‘heaviness’ or ‘weight’ to see what it meant in the original Hebrew. The word translates to the Hebrew word D’agah (deh-aw-gaw) and it exists 6 other times in the Old Testament. D’agah translates to feelings of fear, anxiousness, or anxious care.
I’m pretty good at anxious care. In fact, just this morning I anxiously got up at 4am, rolled over and felt my unborn baby kick me hard. It reminded me of my son who was sleeping in the other room. If I didn’t get up right now and start working, I wouldn’t get my hours in for the day. I anxiously got up. The morning progressed much the same. I anxiously called my boss and had a hard conversation about stepping aside from teaching for a year at the best school I have ever taught at. Anxiously, I cared for my son as he threw his cup across the room and I tried to close my ‘work at home’ duties for the day. Anxiously I carried my son around as I hurriedly checked off my to-do items for the day.
My to-do list and morning routine might have been checked off, but was any of it fruitful?
A Fierce Women Deeply Rooted in Christ
There is a book that has aided me greatly over the years. Kimberly Wagner writes about the power of a soft warrior through her book Fierce Women. In the book she explains two types of fierce women. The first is a fierce woman that demands power. She is fierce, passionate, beautiful, and will tear the walls down to accomplish what she wants. Meeting the world head on, nothing will stop her. She is fierce, but it is not a beautiful fierceness.
The second is still a fierce woman, but there are some real differences. Instead of using her fierceness to tear down in the process of accomplishing what she wants, she instead builds up. She is soft, generous, passionate, secure, loving; and yet she still is a powerhouse of strength and integrity. Her fierceness is beautiful because it is rooted in her Savior Jesus.
A fierce, strong, beautiful women cannot co-exist with an anxious heart.
But why?
Because anxiety is not rooted in our Savior. How to embrace change? Root ourselves in our savior and unashamedly reject anxiety.
What Does it mean to be Rooted in Christ?
My son has a beautiful book called The Storybook Bible. I honestly think it’s been more helpful for me than him. As a children’s bible it is beautifully written and illustrated. Yet what is so unique is that with every story it points back to the gospel. It points back to being deeply rooted in Christ.
I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
Galatians 2:20
Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.
John 14:27
As believers in Jesus Christ we no longer live in the ways of this world. Christ is the one who lives in us. We have the choice to put on the clothes of Christ, hike up our boots, and rest firmly in the foundation of HIS promises.
Does that mean that our anxious thoughts or feelings will just vanish? We live in a sinful world where burdens are daily apart of our sanctification. But stick with me for a moment, our sanctification is beautiful. We daily struggle, fight, and skirmish, not for glory in this world, but the paradise that is awaiting us in the beautiful arms of our savior.
Waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, Titus 2:13
Deeply Rooted in Christ’s Word
The first thing we need to do to stay deeply rooted in Christ is to read his Word. How else are we to know His sovereign will if we are not saturating ourselves with His Words?
For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.
Hebrews 4:!2 NIV
Deeply Rooted in God’s Love
Did you know that God’s love is better than anything imaginable? I don’t know if I can even phetheam the deapths and might of God’s love.
How priceless is your unfailing love, O God! People take refuge in the shadow of your wings.
Psalm 36:7 NIV
Deeply Rooted in Godly Submission
One of the last ways to stay rooted in Christ is through something that we as humans we usually do not like. However, when we learn Godly submission we will find great freedom that will overshadow us with God love and mercy.
Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.
James 4:7 ESV
How to Embrace Change in the Waiting
Waiting is hard, but in the waiting, there is beautiful hope for our lives. What we do in that waiting is key. Transition is hard, but it is unavoidable. How to stay deeply rooted in Christ in the waiting is truly an art of letting go of our control and waiting in the peace of our Savior.
I’m honestly not a fan of cliché’ sayings, they just make me roll my eyes at how committed we get to verbiage. However, in seasons of transition, as we pray for God’s leading and peace, I find this one helpful.
Do not doubt in the darkness what God has revealed in the light.
How do we stay deeply rooted in Christ? The answer is simple yet not easy. Wait on God, hope in him, pray in his Word, preach the Gospel, and stand secure in his promises.
Change may be in the wind, but my Savior remains secure.
What a beautiful, honest description of how we are anxious and even fearful in our daily lives! Thank you soooo much for this post, and especially for sharing it with us via the blog hop!!