WEDNESDAY WEEKLY WORD ...can you change the spots on a leopard?

Is it really wise for us to expect people to change?

Albert Einstein said it best ... "It is easier to change the nature of plutonium than man's evil nature." Even God recognized man's inability to change:

JEREMIAH 13:23 "Can the Ethiopian change his skin or the leapard its spots? Neither can you do good who are accustomed to doing evil."

What I love about God is that even in spite of man's weakness and evil nature, He still chooses to invest in us and love us. I have been thinking about how love-less our world seems to have gotten these days. Everyone is running around trying to get ahead, and do what feels good. Seems to me there is less love and grace for people who are blinded by the enemies lies.

If we could just get away from the "failure cycle" that so many of us are living in. You know what I mean, we fail a few times and then we develop a failure identity. We say to ourselves "this keeps happening because I am a loser" or "what can you expect, I'm a loser!" I have the tendency to see the good in people, even when they are slumped deep down in this failure mode.

Feeling like a failure can sometimes come because we do not like the responsibility that has been given us. In last weeks YOUR OPINION MATTERS POLL, I polled the readers the following question: "What do yo dislike having to be responsible for?" The top 3 answers were:

1. 35% of those polled said that they dislike having the responsibility of other people's happiness.

2. 28% voted and said that they dislike the responsibility of making important decisions.
3. 14% voted that picking up after others is a responsibility that they dislike.

We don't have to live a life of regrets. Even when we have responsibilities that stress us out or that cause us to feel like a failure...God doesn't want us to stay the way we are. He doesn't want us to walk thru life in this "failure mode". He wants to help us change.

ROMANS 5:7,8 "Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates His own love for us in this: while we were still sinners, Christ died for us,"

God values us EVEN in our failures. No longer are we "losers", but rather treasured children of God! You may not be able to change the spots on a leopard, but with God's help you can change your world...starting with YOU!