Sometimes life changes in a moment: think about these Life-changing moments:
David to Saul: ‘I’ll fight that giant’! (1 Sam 17:32)
So Abraham left, as the Lord had told him (Gen 12:4)
Moses to Jethro: ‘Let me go back to my own people in Egypt’ (Ex 4:18)
Daniel to the executioner: ‘Take me to the king, and I will interpret his dream’ (Daniel 2:24)
Saul to Jesus: ‘Who are you Lord?’ (Acts 9:5)
Jesus to His Father: ‘Not my will, but yours be done’ (Lk 22:42)
I can think of a number of life-changing moments in my own life:
Muriel to Geoff: ‘Yes!’
Geoff and Muriel to Steve Thomas: ‘OK, we’ll go to Swindon’!
Or there was that time, long ago, when I was offered a place on a postgraduate Psychology course. At first I had not won a place, but someone else pulled out and they wrote to me. By that time however, one week after the interview, I had made a life-changing decision and applied for a place at a Bible College. So the world was reprieved from having to suffer G.Chad Esq, Clinical Psychologist.
Other life-changing moments: we were asked to move from Oxfordshire to Sale, Cheshire, to assist in a church there – we said yes. We were invited to go and live in Kazakhstan, heading up a humanitarian/educational project – we said yes. We were asked to go to Northern Ireland to help lead a church there – we said yes.
But the biggest life-changing moment of all, of course, was when I said Yes to the Lord Jesus. I believed and trusted that all those other decisions flowed out of that one. It was not just an intellectual decision, not just a part-time commitment, not just a hobby added on to my life to make it more interesting, or somehow to salve my conscience. This decision was my ultimate life-changing moment. It affected where I would live, where I would work, who I would relate to, how I would aim to bring up my children, how my life would be financed – and every smaller aspect of life as well. Why? Because what I said ‘Yes’ to was the question: ‘Will you follow me?’ – and following Jesus is a life-changing commitment. It means laying down your own preferences and doing everything in your power to seek out His will and purpose, and to further the work of His Kingdom on earth.
How does your list of life-changing moments look? What have been the major influences that have shaped the course of your progress through life? What choices are facing you right now, in which you need to find His way forward? Asking for His help in making the right choices can change your life, for the better.
Who are you Lord?
