“Wasn’t that way when I went to school—we always began school right after Labor Day.”

That’s because you’re an old-timer. Things are different these days. In fact, all sorts of things are different. Believe it or not, FDR is no longer president—as he was during most of the time when you attended grade school. There was a time, I’ll bet, when you only knew him, and no other president.

“Sure enough!”

So, things change—sometimes radically. Some changes are for the better; some for the worse. Things are always in motion. In this world, all is flux. But of all the people in the world, it’s the Christian who, when following God’s Word, can best handle change.

“Why is that?”

Because he expects it. Because he knows that change will constantly take place since people without God never get things straight. Not knowing the truth, they disagree. Sometimes violently. As a result, they’re always trying something “new” to solve this problem or that—which, since it isn’t God’s way, never works, so they keep on trying. Among unbelievers, there is never-ending unrest, change, frustration, and disappointment.

God says we are but “strangers and travelers here on the earth” (Hebrews 11:13) and have no continuing city here. We, too, are on the move. Because the ways of men who don’t know God will always mean less, not more, progress in truth we can expect no permanence. And, as a result, people’s expectations are unrealistic. We are not shocked when things go wrong, when one group opposes the ideas of another and when a third opposes both. Life in an unredeemed world is chaotic, confused, uncertain.

However, believers have an anchor in Christ that keeps them from drifting with the world. Indeed, they are often against the stream. And, behind the seeming chaos, God is at work, providentially working out His plans. So, they have something that is immovable, unchangeable and absolutely certain in a world where all else is up for grabs.

As believers, we look forward to the eternal city where you can always depend upon things being the way that they ought to be—because God is its “Architect and Builder” (Hebrews 11:10). Here, things continually change—many of these changes for the worse. So, we take what’s coming today or tomorrow-whether we can forestall it or not—and look forward to the time and place where any change that takes place will consistently be for the good. We will experience a life where there is no longer a need to change from error to truth but always from truth to greater truth. Just think of that!

Check out our online course, The Use of Scripture in Counseling, taught by Jay Adams!

1. The Christian Counselor’s New Testament and Proverbs
2. What to do on Thursday 
3. How to Help People Change 

The Christian Counselor’s New Testament and Proverbs, translated by Jay Adams

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