Stop Talking About Change

When change is needed in our life and God graciously steps in to facilitate it we are in danger. The danger lies in our desire to talk about what happened. We too often want talk about what God has done rather than live out what He has done. In Luke 5:14 Jesus changed a man in a dramatic and powerful way. Yet Jesus told him not to talk to others about what had happened. Instead Jesus told him to go and follow through with the normal process that was put in place by God for change. The living out of the change process was more important than talking about the change itself.

Yet we would rather talk. Talk is easier. Talk allows us to shape and spin things. Actions on the other hand are difficult and often require sacrifice. Actions cannot be manipulated, especially over the long haul.

Jesus told this man, “Your cleansed and obedient life, not your words, will bear witness to what I have done.” Luke 5:15 The Message

We want to focus on an encounter with God and tell others how cool it was. God says let your actions speak to what I have already done within you. Larry Crabb says it this way, “Any experience – no matter how stirring or apparently God-related – that fails to release us a little bit more from the bonds of self-sufficiency, fails to reach beneath our deepest and most painful wounds and expose our resolve to relieve our pain at any cost to others, and fails to supply power to please God and advance His kingdom at any cost to ourselves is counterfeit.” Conversations-Volume 6:1

In other words, you will know you are changed when you stop talking about and you start doing stuff that proves that change has happened. Let’s stop talking and start living changed lives.