Change will come, whether we wish it to or not. To fight it is like fighting the sunrise. Better to say, “Ah, welcome old friend. Here you are again.”

BRUCE COVILLE

“Change, ah welcome old friend!” That would be a major leap for each of us, I think. I do not think I have EVER met a person who likes change, who craves it. And when change does come, it is usually unlike anything most of us have dreaded!

Maybe we can learn to say, “Blessed are you, O Lord our God, King of the universe, who brings change into our lives.” Does that stretch you too far? Perhaps you can write your own version for adapting to change with the help of the King of the universe?

All this reminds me of a passage from Psalms. To often we think if we follow God he will give us what ever we want. This passage does not dispel that thinking, but I believe that is a very shallow interpretation.

Delight yourself in the Lord,
    and he will give you the desires of your heart. Psalm 37:4 NIV

To my way of believing it means if I follow God closely, and trust enough to learn to love Him, my desires will become His desires.

Martin Laird writes in A Sunlit Absence, “When we petition God for anything over a long period of time, something else begins to happen; we are brought into the depths of God and are joined with God’s will.”

If change has you faltering and stumbling perhaps it will take some time for you to embrace that change. Jesus eventually embraced the will of the Father concerning the cross. His heart turned to pleasing the Father in every instance. The cross was no different. His greatest goal seemed to be to delight the Father with obedience.

In a rather new song Abandoned by Benjamin William Hastings says ‘my one life endeavor to match your surrender to mirror not my will but yours.’ He goes on to say ‘completely, deeply, sold out completely abandoned, oh I surrender all. ‘ He describes all the ways we express our total relinquishment to the Almighty. Lyrics are below.

Verse 1  Something isn’t adding up
This wild exchange you offer us
I gave my worst, you gave your blood
Seems hard to believe

Verse 2 
You’re telling me you chose the cross?
You’re telling me I’m worth that much?
Well, if that’s the measure of your love
How else would I sing but


Completely, deeply, sold out sincerely, abandoned
I’m completely, freely, hands to the ceiling enamored
Oh, my one life endeavor
To match your surrender
To mirror not my will but yours
Oh I’m completely, deeply, don’t care who sees me abandoned
Oh I surrender all (Oh)

[Verse 3: Brandon Lake
I just can’t get over it
What kind of self control is this
You had angels at your fingertips
But on the cross you remained, yeah

Verse 4: 
And I can’t repay this kind of love
But I can praise with everything I got (Hey)
Since death had all its power robbed
Then just like the grave

Bridge
The whole of my heart
The best of my soul
Each phase of my life
Each breath in my lungs
Consider it yours Lord (Oh, it's yours)
Consider it yours Lord

The failures I hide
The victories I don’t
The battles I fight
Each crown that I hoard
Consider it yours Lord
Consider it yours Lord
All the glory forever
The grave that you won
The praise of the heavens
The kingdom to come
Consider it yours Lord
Oh, I know You'll never leave me abandoned ...