WEEK ONE: LIFE CHANGE

Many of us have probably heard the old proverb, “A leopard cannot change its spots.” You may have even used it yourself when referring to a situation or even a person. The Collins Dictionary defines this proverb as meaning that “people or things are not able to change their basic characteristics.” But is this saying true? Can a person not change who they are or how they act?

Well, there are some things we cannot change. We do not change our personality. We do learn how to act or behave in certain situations, but our basic personality does not change. We cannot change the fact that we were born with an eternal soul. And along with that, we cannot change that fact that we also were born with a sinful nature. However, this does not mean that we must live our lives tied to that sin nature.

In Luke 19, we are introduced to a man named Zacchaeus. He was a hated man. He was a man that no one trusted. In the eyes of the people of Israel, he was a traitor and thief who betrayed his own people to make himself and the Roman Empire rich at their expense. But then Zacchaeus encounters Jesus, and everything changes. Not only does he change his ways, but he makes reparations to everyone that he took advantage of, paying them back four times what he had taken. So what happened? What occurred that caused such a radical change?  He came face to face with Jesus, and instead of seeing what this man had done, Jesus saw a man who was lost…and came to find him.

You may not be a thief or a traitor, but every one of us has something that gets in the way of our relationship with God. There is some sin that tries to hang on to us and drag us away from that relationship. Luke 19:10 states, “for the Son of Man came to seek and save those who are lost.” Just like Zacchaeus, Jesus comes seeking for each of us too. He is looking for us and our repentance that is driven by his grace.

2 Corinthians 5:17 says, “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old is gone, the new has come.” In other words, when you come face to face with Jesus and encounter him in a way that changes your life, everything changes. You are not just forgiven your past, but your future is transformed. Like Zacchaeus, it may require you to make some things right, but with God’s Spirit in you, and his grace surrounding you, it can be done.

There is nothing you have done that takes you so far away that God’s grace cannot reach you. Jesus sees past our sins, past our shortcomings, and past our hang-ups to what we are, a person deeply loved by God. He wants to be in relationship with you, and when your life is changed, you can become the change God uses to impact the world around you.