Title: Life is about Changing
Bible Book: Jeremiah 29 : 11-13
Author: Richard Bray
Subject: Graduation
Objective:
Introduction
Seniors, you stand on the brink of a new day. Many have invested much in you because of love. You have reached a great milestone by graduating from High School. This is an exciting time but it is also terrifying. Some of you know exactly what you want to do while others don’t have a clue. Some of you wish time would stop so that things could remain the same.
Country and Western star Patty Loveless sings a song with the following line: “Life’s about changin’, nothin’ ever stays the same.” I wish I could tell you that she was wrong, but the only constant in life is change. In order to be successful in life you must learn how to respond to and manage change. You must learn to make right choices based on priorities. If you don’t set some priorities in your life, you will lose focus and change will overwhelm you.
Do you know why animal trainers carry a stool when they go into a cage of lions? They have whips and usually a pistol. Why would they need a stool? According to one expert, the stool is the most important tool of the trainer. The trainer holds the stool by the seat and thrusts the legs toward the face of the wild animal. The lion tries to focus on all four legs at once and becomes tame because his attention is fragmented, or his focus is blurred. If you don’t settle some issues in your life right now, you will lose focus.
If you are going to be successful in this world, you must set some priorities and not let anything interfere with them. Several years ago, my oldest daughter attended Holcomb High School. She had a friend who had great dreams. She set some priorities by planning to go to college. She went to college; however, during her first week, she became homesick. She called her parents and asked if she could come home. They gave her permission. She chose the good, the familiar of family and friends, but forsook the best.
Parents let me say to you, “life is about changing, nothing ever stays the same.” Encourage your children to forsake the good for the best. Since life is about changing, how do we face change?
I. TRUST IN GOD
Israel was in a predicament. Because she had forsaken God and followed idols, she found herself in bondage. The peoples’ lives changed drastically. They were ripped away from their homes and everything that was familiar to them. They longed for the old and familiar things.
False prophets told them that, shortly God would send them home, but God through his prophet Jeremiah told them to settle down because they would be there for 70 years. That meant for some of the older people they would never return to their homeland. God did not want his people to be discouraged about all this change, so He told them about His plans for them. (29:11)
Seniors, how do you handle all the change that is taking place in your life? Trust God. He knows the plans he has for you. He created you! He knows you better than you know yourselves! Trust Him to lead you in the paths of righteousness for His name’s sake.
God offers hope to you today. One commentator wrote the following: “True hope is based on the revealed Word of God, not on the “dream messages” of self-appointed prophets. God gave His people a “gracious promise” to deliver them, and He would keep His promise. God makes His plans for His people, and they are good plans that ultimately bring hope and peace. Therefore, you do not need to be afraid or discouraged. Jesus said, “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to 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)
II. PRAY TO GOD
The Bible makes it very clear that we are to “Trust in the Lord with all our heart and lean not unto our own understanding.” As you face change, don’t try to handle it by yourself. Don’t listen to well-meaning friends who try to tell you what you want to hear. Go to God in prayer. Find time to be alone with Him every day. Get on your knees and say, “God what do you want me to do with my life? How do you want me to do it? Are these the people I really need to be around? Is this the person you want me to spend the rest of my life with?”
You need to pray about everything. It will keep you in proper alignment with God, His will, and His purposes for your life. The children of Israel failed to do that and look where it got them; seventy years in bondage.
If you fail to pray, you will find yourself far away from God, in a place you do not want to be. You will be like the young man in Luke 15 who requested his inheritance. After he had wasted everything in “riotous living,” he woke up in a pigpen.
III. SEEK GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART
Seek the Lord, and He will help you to have the right priorities in life. What life does to us depends largely on what life finds in us. If we seek the Lord and want His best, then circumstances will build us and prepare us for what He has planned. If we rebel or if we look for quick and easy shortcuts, then circumstances will destroy us and rob us of the future God wants us to enjoy. The same sun that melts the ice also hardens the clay. God’s thoughts and plans concerning us come from His heart and lead to His peace. Why look for substitutes?
God says clearly, “You shall find me when you shall search for me with all your heart.” We must continue seeking, and take pains in seeking God with all our heart. This means we are to seek God in sincerity and uprightness. That means we do not go to God with our plans in hand and say, “God, this is the way I feel led. Bless these plans.” We need to truly seek what God wants for us and not what we want for ourselves.
We are to seek God with our whole heart. This means we must seek him with vigor and fervency, putting forth all that is within us. If we do this, God has promised that we will find Him. Hebrews 11:6 tells us that He rewards those who diligently seek Him.
CONCLUSION
In order to be successful in life, we need to learn to manage change by skipping over the good and better to strive for the best. A young woman, a very accomplished violinist, was asked the following question: What led to your success on the violin? The young lady responded, “Planned neglect.” What do you mean by “planned neglect”? She said, “I used to do all my homework and household responsibilities first. I began to notice that I never had enough time to practice, and I was always tired by the time I got to practicing. So I decided that I would neglect everything else until I finished practicing. I owe my success to “planned neglect.”
The only way you will be able to manage change is by planned neglect. You must make your relationship with God the most important thing in your life. You must trust God, pray to Him and seek Him. You must neglect other things to spend time with him. He will lead you in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.
