To be alive and to be human is to experience change. We are born as infants and grow, reaching various milestones along the way. People enter and leave our lives as relationships start and end. Vocations and aspirations grow and diminish as our priorities shift. Time constantly marches on, holding us as captives along the way; we age, we learn and we change.

Change can be hoped for or dreaded; desired or feared. More often than not, change is undesirable. The reason for this is simple; we fear the unknown and what it might bring. We like to live comfortably, and to encounter ‘the known’ is to be comfortable. As soon as something unforeseen or unknown challenges us, we are threatened by change and uncertainty dominates us: this makes us uncomfortable.

Comfort is not God’s desire for our lives; in fact, comfort is the furthest possible ideal that God calls us into. God calls us into relationship with Him and when we truly engage in this relationship, we are guaranteed one thing: change. God does not want change for change’s sake – what He desires is change that will enable deeper relationship with Him. The reality is that, as we are, we cannot hope to approach God’s holy, righteous, perfect, pure presence and enjoy it as we were designed to. Sin has corrupted us and twisted that which was once called ‘very good’ by God. The changing process starts with the simple acknowledgement of the fact that we are not perfect and that God is – and that God made a way through the death and resurrection of Jesus to be reconciled back to Him. But that reconciliation is only the beginning.

The process of change that is experienced afterwards is unique to each person. Aspects of it may be difficult, painful and arduous, or lightning-quick and possibly even enjoyable. What is changed in each of us is also a unique and variable thing. Regardless of the process of change, the eventual outcome for all of us is the same: to be transformed to be more and more like Him. 2 Corinthians 3:18 says ‘But we all, looking on the glory of the Lord, with unveiled face, are transformed according to the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Lord the Spirit.’ As our eyes are drawn to Him, as we engage with Him and know the fullness of His love, our lives are transformed. Not simply transformed, but transformed into His very image, going from glory to glory.

God’s modus operandi throughout history, as He encounters humanity and transforms us from glory to glory, is to turn our world upside down and inside out. God called out to a wealthy and comfortable man to leave his homeland, in a time when no one knew Him, to embark on a journey to become the father of a nation with no idea about destination or duration. God also used the experience of surviving a genocidal ruler to prepare a murderer for the eventual task of liberating an oppressed nation. He challenged a young man to remain strong and courageous in the insurmountable face of opposition to claim a ‘promised land’. He anointed a young shepherd boy to become a great warrior and the greatest king a nation had ever seen based solely on the stature of his heart. God called out in love by challenging a prophet of His to go and marry a prostitute with the knowledge that she would humiliate and leave him, all to reveal God’s heart to His nation. He sent His messenger to an unmarried, poor, teenage girl to reveal that He has chosen her to be the mother of God’s son, the Messiah who was promised. He beckoned fishermen, tax collectors, sinners, outcasts and undesirables to leave everything they knew and owned to follow Him. He struck a murdering religious zealot blind, to allow him to see the true reality of the situation he was in. He raised His church up throughout centuries and millennia of torture and persecution, all of which has done nothing but grow the number of those that follow 'The Way'. Many of these examples of God’s call and his method to change us are daunting to say the least, but they are all accompanied with God’s command that echoes through the ages. A command that is repeated more than any other throughout all of His word. That command is, ‘fear not’.

How can we obey this command? How can we face the challenges of life with no fear when they sometimes appear so cruel, meaningless and random? Or how can we face change from God, change that is designed to transform us from ‘glory to glory’, with no fear, when God’s methods can seem so extreme? God answers us in Isaiah 41 with these words: ‘do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.’ His identity and His presence is enough. His ability and His strength can get us through. God also tells us that ‘There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love’ (1 John 4:18). His love dictates that fear is an unnecessary response to difficulty and challenge. If we know that He is greater and more powerful than anything that we can possibly face, and we know that He loves us – what is there to fear? Even if the challenge or the call to change comes from Him, we know that His love for us will not allow that challenge to break us. He does not want to punish us, He wants to draw us deeper into His love, to see Him face to face and to be transformed from glory to glory.

The greatest reassurance we have in denying fear a stronghold in our lives is that, while we may change and circumstances can change, our God is the same yesterday, today and forever (Hebrews 13:8). Our God stood before time and will endure when time and all that is held within it will fade away. ‘Eternal’ is God’s name and His nature. A byproduct of this is that whenever God promises us something, His word endures as eternally as He does. So when God promises and states (Jeremiah 29:11) ‘“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”’ We can be sure that God is speaking an eternal truth about His attitude and plans towards us; that His will is good, pleasing and perfect (Romans 12:2). And even when life throws us challenges and cruelties that are separate from God and His will, His promise declares that, ‘we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose (Romans 8:12).’ So regardless of the circumstances, regardless of the people, regardless of ourselves: we are in His loving hands and can trust that His hands are the best place to be.

To experience change is to be alive and human. As humans, we tend to fear change and all the discomfort it might bring to our temporary existence here on planet earth. But God calls us to know Him, and to know Him is a call to change. The process of change can be difficult and even painful. It can rock us to our very core and threaten to destroy us, but God commands us to ‘fear not’. God asks us to trust Him – to trust that He is greater than any circumstance we find ourselves in and to trust in His love for us. God’s eternal promises ring out, as does His challenge to us. So as we travel through the flames, acknowledging His love, knowing that He is there and will not allow for us to become broken, we begin to change. We change and become transformed from glory to glory; from mortal to eternal.