It’s Time For A Shift:

We don’t think about it often but there comes a time in our lives when shift is needed, many times when shifts happen we do not realize it because they occurs naturally.  Such as going to college or getting a new a job they happen and we just go with them not even realizing that we have made a shift in our lives.  This is what is called a small shift, but then there comes times in our lives when we sit down and realize we have to make a big shift.  Let us for just a second look at what a shift is, if you can remember back to earth science you may  remember studying about  earthquakes.  If you remember an earthquake happens when there is a shift in the plates.  These shifts can cause a lot of damage, many of us still remember the 8.9 magnitude earthquake that hit Japan on March 11, 2011.  When the earth shifted that day it caused a massive tsunami and relocated Japan on the map.  But can we as people make these kinds shifts in our own lives that will change the world around us?  Of course we can the bible is filled with true stories of people who  made shifts in their lives to live for God and see how they can work in the world around them and see people come to God because they heard the Holy Spirit talking to them and they responded. 

The Thing about making this shift is that it is not an easy shift to make for us.   Christ tells us this in Luke 9:21-27; “Jesus warned them not to tell anyone about this.  “For I, the Son of Man, must suffer many terrible things,” he said. “I will be rejected by the leaders, the leading priests, and the teachers of religious law. I will be killed, but three days later I will be raised from the dead.”  Then he said to the crowd, “If any of you wants to be my follower, you must put aside your selfish ambition, shoulder your cross daily, and follow me.  If you try to keep your life for yourself, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for me, you will find true life.  And how do you benefit if you gain the whole world but lose or forfeit your own soul in the process?  If a person is ashamed of me and my message, I, the Son of Man, will be ashamed of that person when I return in my glory and in the glory of the Father and the holy angels.  And I assure you that some of you standing here right now will not die before you see the Kingdom of God.”

Notice what Christ is telling the crowd, if you want to follow me you must give up your own wants, ambitions and most likely people aren’t going to like you or the changes your making.  If we want to make a difference in our own little circle of people then we must first give everything to God.  We cannot hold back and say I want to keep this little part of my life.  I still want to be able to do this.  No it is all or nothing.  The first shift we must make is that we must stop playing around and begin to get real with God.  In the last few years I have read four books that have opened up my eyes and I have begun to make some changes in my life I now feel God telling it is time to make more.  It is time for us to start getting real with God, and letting go of our own self wants and desires. Three of the books I read told me that I need to start doing in my life, the fourth book was an autobiography of Katie Davies who at 18 moved to Africa and showed obeyed Gods calling to minister to the children and women.  We need to begin to say “we need to shift from being self-centered to being God-centered, to give the things that we want and take up the things of Gods kingdom”.