If there is one constant in life it is change. Change is inevitable. Change happens every day all around us.

It is day then it is night. The sun can be shining one minute and pouring down rain the next. You have a good job, one that you really enjoy, only to find out that the company is losing its contract, potentially leaving you unemployed. Yesterday you were healthy, today the doctor tells you that you have cancer. You thought your marriage was “happily ever after” only to have your spouse tell you it is “happy no more.” You’ve raised your children and now look forward to enjoying life with your spouse only to have them die unexpectedly. Your sweet cuddly five-year old soon becomes a teenager. Your empty nest becomes un-empty as your ailing parent moves in with you, zapping you of freedom and energy. You look in the mirror and the person looking back at you somehow is older than you remember.

Do you ever feel like a chameleon, always having to change colors to adapt to your surroundings? Did you know that the primary reason chameleons change colors is not for camouflage? They do not need to hide from most predators since they can run in excess of 20 miles per hour, which helps them avoid most dangers. The primary reasons chameleons change colors is to reflect their mood and to adjust to temperature variations. Reminds me a little of the mood ring fashion fad in the 1970s. If you are older than Gen Xers, you probably remember them and might have even owned one; rings ornamented with a hollow quartz stone filled with temperature-sensitive liquid crystal that changed colors depending upon the wearer’s mood.    

Sometimes the game changes, sometimes the rules of the game change, sometimes both change, many times with little advance warning. Most of us do not like change but change can be healthy. Change often forces us to mature and grow, to be (or become) flexible, and change often pushes us past our comfort zones into places we previously thought impossible. Change can also be painful and discouraging, causing us to question and doubt. Like the chameleon, we are all forced to change and adapt to the ever-changing environment around us.

Despite the chameleon-like change that is in the world, we have a God who never changes. The theological word for this is immutable, which is defined as unchanging over time or unable to be changed. God Himself tells us that He does not change. In Malachi 3:6 we read, “I the LORD do not change.”

Elsewhere in scripture we read these encouraging words, found in 1 Peter 1:24-25, “All people are like grass, and all their glory is like the flowers of the field; the grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of the Lord endures forever.” (Also see Isaiah 40:6-8, Hebrews 13:8, James 1:17.)

So, today, and as you look into the future, in this ever-changing chameleon world, you can trust God in all things, all the time! He is never-changing, who is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow. He is all-powerful and sovereign (omnipotent), all knowing all the time (omniscience), and He is everywhere at once (omnipresent).

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Today you will be confronted with a number of decisions. Some big, others small. When you were getting dressed this morning you decided whether to wear tan or blue. For breakfast, you might choose between cornflakes and fresh fruit, or maybe a less healthy option, grabbing two donuts and an energy drink on the way to work. Throughout the day you will need to decide which tasks to do today and which to postpone until another day. While those are often important decisions, they are also sometimes done without too much thought, many with little or no impact on your future. Decisions like where to go to college, who to date or marry, where to live, what job to take are not quite as easy, and the choices you make quite possibly will have long-term consequences. Are you seeking God’s wisdom and counsel when making those decisions?

Still other decisions are a choice between right and wrong, good and evil, justice and injustice. Sometimes those decisions require us to stand alone, to go against the flow, to swim upstream.

We must decide whether we will be faithful to God, often meaning we swim upstream, or to go with the crowd by swimming with the current. A new business deal smells a little fishy. It could be very lucrative but also violates a number of your principles. “That’s just how business works” is what crosses your mind. It’s late at night, the family is in bed, and you cannot sleep so you sit at your computer and look at sexually graphic images. “What can it really hurt; I’m just trying to relax so I can sleep.” You know in your heart that much of what is going on in society around you is wrong, it goes against everything biblical, but the crowd you hang with sees it differently, so in order to avoid conflict and fit in, you say nothing and remain quiet.

The Bible tells us that Satan is active in this world and loves nothing more than to trip us up, causing us to sin and turn our backs on God. In 1 Peter 5:8 we read this warning: “Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.”

The Holy Spirit, who resides within every follower of Jesus, can equip and guide us in all we do and say, both in the big and the little. Scripture tells us that the Holy Spirit guides us into God’s will (Psalm 143:10), guides us to live according to God’s Word (Ezekiel 36:27), guides us away from sin (Galatians 5:16) and into truth (John 16:13).  

The writer of Hebrews ends the book this way: “Now may the God of peace, who through the blood of the eternal covenant brought back from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep, equip you with everything good for doing his will, and may he work in us what is pleasing to him, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.” (13:20-21)

In this fallen and sinful world, in order to follow Jesus, you must always be swimming upstream, requiring you to go against the flow. Today I ask you, which direction are you swimming?

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You have a great idea for a new product at work. It will make the company more profitable. You have an exciting idea for your history class project. There are many reliable resources and you have tremendous interest in the subject matter. You and two friends plan to stay out until midnight, which is two hours past your curfew, it is Friday night, and there’s no school tomorrow. All these sound like wonderful plans, but often we are not the final say in our plans. You need to present a sales pitch to the divisional manager for approval of your new product idea. You need your teacher’s buy-in for your project. You must ask your parents for permission to stay out past curfew.

Sometimes we ask others for their approval or opinion of our plan while other times we simply want them to give us their stamp of approval. Generally speaking, we are not fond of other people telling us their plans for our lives. When it comes to following God we sometimes fall into that same trap. We tend to tell God our plans rather than ask Him for His good and perfect plan. Today I want to look at Proverbs 16:9, using four different translations simply for comparative purposes.

“The heart of man plans his way, but the LORD establishes his steps.” (ESV)

“The mind of man plans his way, But the LORD directs his steps.” (NASB)

“In their hearts humans plan their course, but the Lord establishes their steps.” (NIV)

“We can make our plans, but the Lord determines our steps.” (NLT)

Have you ever wondered what that verse really means? In my opinion, this verse reminds us of the sovereignty of God; that God is in control. To better understand the passage, let’s look at the two key verbs – plans and determines. The Hebrew word used in the passage for plan is “Hasib,” which means “to think or reckon.” Contrast that with the Hebrew word “Kun” used here for determine, which means “to be firm, to set in place, be established, steadfast, faithful, reliable, or certain.”

The contrast is between what is planned and what actually happens; this verse tells us that while we “plan,” it is God who “establishes, directs, determines.” And in Ephesians 3:20 we read this, “Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us.”

So, it really boils down to one simple question… Are you asking God to tell you His plans and allowing Him to guide your steps OR are you simply asking God to bless your plans?

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A number of years ago, while driving along the Gulf Coast of Florida, on the way to visit my wife’s parents, we unexpectedly encountered swarms of bugs that created dangerous driving conditions for us and every other car on the road. These bugs (flies), known as lovebugs, pair together with a mate, attach themselves to one another, and fly in tandem, hence, the affectionate name given to them. They are attracted to the fumes emitted from vehicles, often surrounding moving cars so thickly as to create a cloud, many getting splattered onto windshields and grills of those vehicles, thus making visibility all but impossible.

Lovebugs are only really a nuisance during their two mating seasons, spring and late summer. Most of their life cycle is spent as larvae, they only have a life span of a three or four days, but if you travel through the humid climate of Florida during those few days, beware. Not only do lovebugs affect driving visibility, they can also do damage to your car’s engine and paint. As soon as we got to our destination, with our windshield and hood splattered with bugs, we were instructed to go straight to the car wash.

Maybe you have not encountered lovebugs, but I am sure you have driven when your windshield became dirty due to old wiper blades or your washer fluid reservoir being empty. When dirt and grime build up on your windshield, it is hard to see the road in front of you, making driving dangerous and unsafe. Clean windshields make driving both easier and safer.  

Just as dirty windshields hinder our ability to see the road in front of us, dirty hearts also hinder us from seeing God. In the Beatitudes, Jesus says this – “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God” (Matthew 5:8). In this verse, the Greek word for “pure” (katharos) means purified, clean, unstained from guilt, free from the contaminating influences of sin. Notice what is doesn’t say – perfect. Instead, being pure in heart means having an uncompromised desire to please God, one with no hidden motives. We cannot “see” God with our physical eyes (Colossians 1:15), but in my understanding, “seeing God” is fellowship with Him that goes beyond ordinary sight, having a supernatural perception of His presence. In theological terms this is often called a beatific vision.

It is God, through the work of the Holy Spirit, who purifies our heart. Our purity comes as we in faith obey (a word we do not like in the 21^st-century) God’s Word and trust in the promises that flow out of the finished work of Christ (1 Peter 1:22-23).

After his adulterous affair with Bathsheba and his conniving scheme to cover it up (read 2 Samuel 11) was exposed by the prophet Nathan, here is what David cried out, found in Psalm 51:10-12 – “Create in me a clean [pure] heart, O God, and renew a right spirit in me. Cast me not away from your presence, and take not your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit.”

So, I ask you, do you have a dirty windshield (heart) that is keeping you from seeing the unimaginable beauty of God? If so, today, and every day, ask God to shape in you a pure heart, and by doing so, a clean windshield that allows you to see God clearly?

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