And I am certain that God, who began the good work within you, will continue his work until it is finally finished on the day when Christ Jesus returns. Philippians 1:6 (NLT)
Have you become stuck in a rut, doing things the same way you’ve always done them? Most people dislike change. They try to find the perfect system to handle life and then they fight to hang on to it, whether it’s working or not.
We are creatures of habit. We create bad habits with food and then struggle to get healthy. We form habitual ways of thinking and then we wonder why we always feel a certain way. Our relationships fall victim to habits as well—we tend to handle disagreements the same way. Habits can be very useful when the habit is healthy, but when we hang on to behaviour that isn’t working for us, we suffer the consequences.
Many people wait until crisis hits before they initiate change. A heart attack motivates them to exercise and eat healthily. A divorce propels them to develop new relationship skills. We don’t have to wait until we are facing crisis to initiate change.
All of us need to continually change. Our habits need constant tweaking. Paul encourages us with the fact that God has begun a good work in us that He will continue until Jesus returns. This is His prayer: I pray that your love will overflow more and more, and that you will keep on growing in knowledge and understanding. For I want you to understand what really matters, Philippians 1:9-10 (NLT).
God empowers you to continually change, grow and get better. As we renew our minds in His Word and grow in our understanding of His love, life gradually becomes brighter and more beautiful as God enters our lives and we become like him (2 Corinthians 3:16–18, MSG).