When writing a devotional or doing anything, I never want to force words or actions simply because I need to meet a deadline or standard that I have created for myself. This alone is sometimes hard for me because I like to get stuff done, but I’ve learned that God will sometimes stop me because there is something fundamental that he is showing or changing in me. Over the past several weeks that I haven’t written a devotional, I have heard God say that change is hard and fearful, yet I could not connect what he was teaching me. This morning it touched.

The more I grow in my relationship with God, the more storms I encounter. I sometimes feel as if I only get a brief moment of relief before heading into another storm. Some storms are more significant than others, and some storms last longer than others, but God brings about a change in me in each storm. Some of these changes are subtle, and it is not until after looking back over my life that I realize that God has even changed me. Other changes or so big that I feel like if I make this change, I will no longer know myself as a person. These changes, the massive ones, are the scariest. They are the changes that cause you to fully surrender an area of your life over to God, even if you thought you already had. For me, these changes are always unfamiliar territory, uncharted waters. SCARY.

This morning, I have learned that this is precisely what I want, no matter how scary or hard the change. I want to walk so close with God that he is constantly changing me, even if that means I only get a few moments of relief from the storms. He has never left me or failed to strengthen me during or after anything in my life; he is faithful. I’m walking this journey of transformation, and although it doesn’t always feel good, God is constantly working things out for my good. So today, I want to encourage you and me, if you are in a storm, what is God changing in you? Trust Him in the process and grow.

This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun! 2 Corinthians 5:17

Read Psalm 86