By Chris WittsFriday 30 Dec 2022Morning Devotions with Chris WittsFaithReading Time: 1 minute
Transcript:
One of the quaint sayings around is this one: “Turning over a new leaf”. Have you heard that one? It’s actually an old saying going back to the 16th century, referring to the leaf like page in a book that was very thin, turning it over and start writing again on a new page.
It didn’t refer to a leaf from a tree, interestingly enough, but we use this phrase quite a bit, turning over a new leaf. It refers to making a new change. Starting again, probably
from a bad start. Turning over a new leaf is a way of saying, let’s start a fresh chapter of my life by getting rid of the negative actions and qualities of the past. Let’s behave
better as we go forward. No one likes being told to change their behaviour, but sometimes it’s needed.
So my question is, has your life become routine and without a challenge? Is it time for a change? Do you need to open your life on a new page? It can be a challenge. It can feel scary to step out of your comfort zone but making a change can be a productive step forward in your life, although it’s not always easy. An old man from the mountains took a trip to the big city. And for the first time in his life, he found himself standing outside an elevator, and he watched as an old woman hobbled on and the doors closed behind her. A few minutes later, the doors opened, and a young, attractive woman marched smartly off. Well, he was amazed at this.
The old man turned to his son and said, “Boy, go home and get your mother so I can run her through this thing.” Change is sometimes full of challenges. Don’t you wish change was easy? And maybe it’s not others we want to change. We look within ourselves and if we’re honest, we see many things about ourselves we want to change. Could be addiction, our anger, fears, frustrations, gambling, our habits, drugs, our attitudes, our relationship, our language, our secret sins. And this list can go on and on. And often we say we want to change. We may even want to change others. I’m going to turn over a new leaf. I’m going to try harder. Going to pull myself up by my bootstraps. Things are going to be different. You wait and see. But ultimately, our best intention to attempts to change are fleeting to say the least. God has a habit of whispering in our ear, “It’s time for a new season. You need to change.” Now that’s the question, do you want a change?
In the Bible, in the New Testament especially, we read of a man and named Bartimaeus, who was born blind. He sat on the side of the Jericho Road, begging. He’d
given up long ago of turning a new leaf in his life. It was hopeless. Until one day he heard Jesus was passing by and Bartimaeus wanted to see, he’d never seen a sunset. And Jesus asked him this question. He said, “What do you want?” “I want to see,” the man said. You can read that in Mark 10:51. This poor unfortunate man grabbed the opportunity as it presented itself. A large crowd that day was with Jesus, but who’d be interested in him? But he didn’t procrastinate. That’s another valuable lesson here. You may want to turn over a new leaf, but you put it off. Another time, another convenient day. That’s not the answer because Bartimaeus shouted above the crowd, “Have mercy on me, a sinner.”
They told him to be quiet, but he kept going. Nothing or no one was going to get in his way to change his life. And you know, if you read the story, he was cured. Jesus cured
him. He got up and followed Jesus. Denis Waitley wrote the book ‘Being the Best’, and he quotes an unknown poet who wrote: “I spent a fortune on a trampoline, a stationary bike, a rowing machine, complete with gadgets to read my pulse, and gadgets to prove my progress results, and others to show the miles I’ve charted, but they left off the gadget to get me started.” The Bible says, “Behold, now is the accepted time. Now is the day of salvation.” I think the time for change is when God has convicted us, that we do need to change.
Let’s Pray
Heavenly Father, is it time for me to turn over a new leaf? Lord, is it time for making changes? I pray that you’ll help me. And those who do need to hear this, to do it today, amen.