Self-help books sometimes claim you can change your life in five or ten simple steps. It takes a lot more than that to make substantial and lasting changes in your life. First, change comes by drawing on a power greater than your own – God’s power. Paul writes: ‘I know how to be abased, and I know how to abound. Everywhere and in all things I have learned both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me’ (vv. 12-13 NKJV). Second, change comes from steady and determined hard work and effort. ‘Let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart’ (Galatians 6:9 NKJV). The key is to understand that a bad day does not make you a failure; it doesn’t last, it’s just a bad day. After you have had one, and all of us have, you just start back on track the following day. Don’t give up. Life is a sequence of ups and downs, stops and starts. Tomorrow is a brand-new day. What’s necessary now is to revive your promise to make changes in your life and start from the place you left off. If you need to, seek God’s forgiveness, forgive yourself, and begin walking forward again. Make your goal your focus, not the fact that you slipped up. Don’t get caught up blaming others or yourself. Let it go and move on. Realise that the next time you come up against a difficult situation – and you will – in God’s strength, you will handle it better.
