Thoughts of change without action become your torment. My husband says it like this, “Girl, you don’t have a knowing problem, you have a doing problem.”



You typically know better, you simply don’t do better. You know what to do, or atleast you know the first simple step in getting started, but the problem is you don’t take that first step, so you remain stuck in a life that is far less than you were created for.



This morning, you miraculously woke up to the gift of a brand new year of life. Welcome to 2025. You have never seen anything like this before. Overflowing and limitless potential meets you here today and invites you into living bigger and better this year.



With the new year, my guess is, you likely have thoughts of wanting to do better this year. There are a few changes you have been thinking about. Things you think you should really start doing, and things you should stop doing. We all have those thoughts. Those thoughts are an internal compass given to us by God to receive the promptings of his Holy Spirit. Now, we’re supposed to do something about those promptings!



The thoughts of change are there, but my sister, if you once again fail to take the necessary steps of action prompted by those thoughts, your mind becomes a place a torment.



Let me talk to you about the anxiousness you feel … Uh huh, yeah, we’re addressing that first thing this year because you absolutely cannot continue with the crippling affects of that anxiousness. You’re all torn up on the inside and tormented in your mind because you know better, but you’re not doing better. Your thoughts for change have been met with feet that won’t move in the direction necessary for change. That’s why you’re disappointed in life. That’s why you don’t like yourself. That’s why you’ve grown a little bitter and a little cynical. That’s why your energy is low and your butt’s been dragging.



You can change, girl, you can turn around right now and start your journey in a radically different direction with one single step. You can, but the question is will you?



Jesus tells us a story of a young man who knew better, but wasn’t doing better. He had thoughts of change, but without action, he remained in torment. He was overwhelmed with anxiousness because deep within his soul he always knew he was created for more than he had settled for. And whew, that is a nagging feeling, the feeling of knowing you’re created for more but you’ve settled for less. Maybe you’re familiar with that feeling.



As Jesus tells us this story, he brings us to a monumental moment that can easily be overlooked. A monumental moment in this man’s life that looks a whole lot like a moment you are about to have right now. As we read the story, the monumental moment of change is easy to miss, but listen closely.



Jesus says in Luke 15: 11-24:



A man had two sons. The younger son told his father, “I want my share of your estate now before you die.” So his father agreed to divide his wealth between his sons.A few days later this younger son packed all his belonging and moved to a distant land, and there he wasted all his money in wild living. About the time his money ran out, a great famine swept over the land, and he began to starve. He persuaded a local farmer to hire him, and the man sent him into this fields to feed the pigs. The young man became so hungry that even the pods he was feeding the pigs looked good to him. But no one gave him anything.When he finally came to his sense, he said to himself, “At home even the hired servants have food enough to spare,