Questions to ponder soberly: what are the changes that you need to make? What area of your life needs to change in order for you to be at peace with yourself and others? 

You may have heard it said, “You can’t change what is going on around you, until you start changing what’s going on within you.” It’s a nice sentiment, but the question is, how do you change yourself? This question may give birth to many more questions. 

For starters, if you are finding it too hard to change yourself, then what chance do you think you have in trying to change others?  

Or perhaps you wish someone would suddenly appear in your life and change everything for the better. Do you think that’s the right mindset and solution? In some rare instances, changes instigated by others may improve your situation but for the most part, you’re the one, the only one who can change your life!  It starts by changing your own mindset.  An anonymous Hasidic rabbi,who quoted on his deathbed this: “When I was young, I set up to change the world. When I grew a little older, I realized that this was too ambitious, so I set out to change my state. This too, I realized as I grew older, was too ambitious, so I set out to change my town. When I realized I could not even do this, I tried to change my family. Now as an old man, I know that I should have started by changing myself. If I had started with myself, maybe then I would have succeeded in changing my family, the town, or even the state and who knows, maybe even the world! “

Life is constantly changing, and so are people. Yesterday you may have had clever thoughts to change the world, but today you are wise if you change yourself — it happens when you start following God’s instruction. After all, He has the final say on all that matters.

Paul the apostle of Christ says, 

“That is how God wants us to change ourselves, by not conforming to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by renewing our minds.” (Romans 12:2)

Draw near to God and humbly ask for a new heart. Ask him to make your desires align with his. This is the first step toward meaningful change and to receiving answers to your prayers. 

(Isaiah 43:19)

“See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland.”

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