Have you become everything you would like to be?

02 Apr Have you become everything you would like to be?

What more would you like to be? 

• Would you like to be a better spouse? A better parent?  A better friend? 
• Would you like to be more patient? More caring? More self-disciplined?
• Would you like to be more positive? More resilient?  More encouraging?

What would you like to be able to do that you cannot do now?

• Would you like to be more effective in helping other people?
• Would you like to be a better teacher, counselor, speaker?
• Would you like to make a greater positive contribution to people than you do now?

If you have these or any other desires for change, it’s a good thing. 

Change is part of Gods value system

Change is part of God’s value system.  In this context, change means “growth in the right direction.” 

It is God’s tendency to create things small and embryonic, and have them change to become advanced and mature.

• He created just two people, Adam and Eve, and expected to populate the entire earth through them.
• He created the church with just 12 disciples through whom he intended to reach the entire world.
• He creates humans as infants and intends for us to be cared for, fed, nurtured, so we grow to adulthood.

And He creates each Christian as a spiritual infant and expects him or her to grow, to change, to become.  And, because everything God asks of us, He does so to give something good to us, He has created us so that “change” is inherently pleasurable. 

There are few things more enjoyable than change. Not necessarily the process of change, but the result. And, of course, the primary area of change a Christian must pursue is to grow to spiritual maturity in Christ. 

Change is not quick or easy

Change, however, is not quick or easy.

We would like to be like the frog in the fairytale that gets kissed by a princess and “Poooooffff!”  we are changed… instantly, totally, permanently.   A second before, we were a green warty little frog, and now, suddenly, we are a ridiculously handsome prince who lives happily ever after!

Or, if you are female, reverse it.  You get kissed by a prince and are instantly changed into a ridiculously beautiful princess who lives happily ever after.

That’s what we want.

But if you haven’t noticed, it doesn’t work that way in real life.  As a Christian, we get “kissed” by God and, in our spirit, there is a complete and permanent “poof.”  We are born again, in the likeness of God, in holiness and righteousness (Ephesians 4:24).

But in our “outer man” (intellect, emotions and will), it’s a limited and imperfect process… more like a “pffffftttt”  than a “poooooofffff.” And there we are, with the crown of a prince or princess, still resting ajar on the head of a green warty little body, sitting on a lily pad, croaking sightlessly into the night. 

And now God starts us on a slow journey of change more fully into the image of a prince or princess, with the intent that our intellect, emotions and will slowly and gradually begin change to become like Christ  (Romans 8:29). 

We must cooperate with God’s process

It’s an imperfect process that we have to cooperate with.  Philippians 2:12-13 says, “work out your salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.”

 This passage tells us that God works in us to change, but that we must respond in an attitude of trust and obedience.

 Other passages of Scripture reveal the importance of change:

• We are to renew our minds in order to transform our lives. Romans 12:1-2
• Like newborn babies, we are to long for the pure milk of the word, so that by it we may grow in respect to salvation. 1 Peter 2:2
• We are to grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. 2 Peter 3:18
• We are to grow up in all aspects into him who is the head, even Christ. Ephesians. 4:15
• We are to leave the elementary teaching about Christ and press on to maturity. Hebrews 6:1

We see then, that change is the issue… it is the thing. And, if we will cooperate with God in the process, we can experience the change we hope for.

Conclusion

I remember when I had only been a Christian for a short time, I heard Francis Schaeffer, a philosopher and theologian of an earlier generation, say that we get our values the same way we get the measles… by being around others who have them. As a result, we often end up with values which, given more reflection, we might have chosen to avoid.  

That hit me like a thunderbolt.  I thought, “That’s me!  I have values that I caught like I caught the measles… by being around others who have them.”  And I didn’t like some of the values I ended up with.  I realized in that blinding flash of insight the wonderful truth that I was not locked into being who I was.  I realized I could change… I could become the person I would rather be.

In the ensuing years, one of the joys of my life has been the change that God has accomplished in my life.  Believe me, I’m not what I want to be.  And I’m not what I’m going to be.  But thank the Lord, I’m not what I was.

Author Dallas Willard once said, “The main thing God gets out of your life is the person you become. And, the main thing you get out of your life is the person you become.”

 That being the case, our greatest opportunity in life is to become the most we can become in Christ before we die.

 As we embrace that value, it can set us on a path of growth that has the potential to become the single most satisfying thing in life.  Of course, it is, as we said, a slow and challenging process – not a “poooooofffff.”  We grow, we are not catapulted.  But the first step is to desire to change, to commit to change, to be willing to change.  

Romans 12:2 says that we can be transformed by the renewing of our mind so that we are not conformed to this world.  But Romans 12:1 tells us that the process is begun as we “present our bodies a living sacrifice.”  That is, we commit ourselves to the process.  Then, we respond as best we can as God works in our lives to change us to be like Christ. 

If you have never done so, tell the Lord that you present yourself to Him as a living sacrifice. That is the first step in the process of transformation into the image of Christ.  

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