Recently I went back to my hometown for a wedding. Like most trips back home, I found myself interacting with people and places I once did growing up. I will see the same people I attended church with for the first 18 years of my life. I find myself eating at the same restaurants I did growing up. I fill up my truck with gas from the same gas station I did in high school. Each of these situations makes me realize how much has changed. It makes me realize things are not the same and they will never be the same. Once you get accustomed to a lifestyle pattern, it can be hard to step out and try something new. Change like this can be one of the hardest things anyone can experience. Sometimes, change is necessary. Christians need to go through change at some point.

When we put on Christ in baptism, we bring change into our lives. We put away an old way of life and strive to live a Christ-like life. 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.” If we look at Ephesians 4, we see Paul the Apostle discussing the importance of change. In verses 17-19, Paul mentions it is important to no longer walk like the Gentiles who had become callous and were greedy to practice impurity. More specifically, let us look at verses 22-24. Ephesians 4:22-24 says, “To put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.”

Change is necessary for our growth as Christians. Romans 12:2 says, “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.” Are we willing to change for the better? Are we okay with being uncomfortable for the better?