Transformations

“Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.” (Romans 12:1,2)

I love these verses. They are a call to action, to be transformed, to have a renewed mind. I want this. I want my life to reflect God’s will, his good, pleasing, and perfect will. It sounds admirable, doesn’t it? It is a goal to be pursued. It is also challenging. It means relinquishing control. It is a change from the inside, out. It takes time. It takes God’s time.

Recently, I have had difficulty letting go of an outer change. Many times, I wanted to give up and go back to the old me. I have had to laugh at myself over this silly, vain change. Guess what it was? My hair! Very embarrassing to admit, but it is the truth. I started coloring my hair many years ago. Last year, I decided it was time to go “au natural.” This change was a long process. It was hard to look in the mirror and see my white, actually neon white, hair taking over.

This process was especially difficult when I had what appeared to be a brown beanie on the top of my head for months. Who was this new, and not necessarily improved, person in the mirror? Several times, I thought, “Forget it. It is too hard, takes too long, and of course, I look too old.” I wanted to go back to what was familiar.

Is there a shortcut to Godliness?

Isn’t this the way we are spiritual? We want to be transformed into the image of Jesus, but we do not want to go through the process. It is uncomfortable. It is difficult, and it takes too long. We want to be like Him, but we do not want to go through the process of becoming like Him.

We want a shortcut to Godliness. Thankfully, God does not allow this. He is patient with us in order to teach us patience. He is gentle with us in order to teach us gentleness. He forgives us in order to teach us true forgiveness. He is full of unconditional love, which teaches us how to give unconditional love.

When we trusted Jesus for our salvation, God created a new person. God wants us to experience this new life through the transformative power of the Holy Spirit. It begins with an internal change. Outer changes are much easier. We can lose weight, and change our hair color or our style of clothes, but the inner change means letting go of our perceived rights and control. It requires yielding to the work of the Holy Spirit. This change often comes through trials and struggles.

The Longer Path to Growth

Our transformation might be compared to that of a caterpillar becoming a butterfly. Caterpillars crawl on stems and leaves with a very narrow and short-sited view. However, when the caterpillar attaches itself to the proper source, a new process begins. Slowly, the caterpillar is wrapped in a chrysalis, leading to a change from the inside out. There is no rushing the process of metamorphosis for the caterpillar.

Eventually, at the proper time, it pushes through the chrysalis, and the transformation is complete. It has changed from a crawler to one that soars. Interestingly, it is the struggle and pressure of pushing through the chrysalis that releases the fluids necessary to strengthen the wings. It cannot fly if it does not go through the complete process.

As believers, we often act like the caterpillar, crawling through our life, only seeing what is right before us. But God’s plan is for us to soar. Just as the caterpillar must go through the transformation process to become what it is meant to be, so must we. Our inner renewal begins when we surrender to the Holy Spirit, our proper power source, and allow Him to reveal those areas where we are crawling. When we turn those areas over to the Lord, yielding them to Jesus, we begin to experience the new creature we are in Christ. Paul calls it “putting on the new man.”

This is a choice. It means allowing God to use the struggles and pressures of life to produce in us the glory of God. Praise God for His ways are not our ways. Our way almost always involves taking the easy path. He says, “no my child, the difficult path is longer, but it is where you grow the most. I want your spiritual wings to be strong in order for you to soar above your circumstances.”

Remember Jesus loves you, is for you, and is with you as you are being transformed into His image.

Blessings,

PS – I am loving Proverbs 16:31 “A gray head is a crown of glory.”

Personal Parables is the blog of Dyann Shepard. Get Dyann’s complementary study in Proverbs and prayer guide, What to Do When You Don’t Feel Good Enough. If you need encouragement to remember the truth about yourself in times of doubt and anxiety, this free 5-day study is for you. Follow Dyann and Personal Parables on Instagram and Facebook. Dyann is available for speaking, guest blogging, and article writing.

Scripture for Meditation

If you would like further reading in Scripture that relates to my post, Transformations, here are some passages that I hope deepen your thoughts on the theme of transformation.

Psalm 103:1-5

Praise the Lord, my soul; all my inmost being, praise his holy name. Praise the Lord, my soul, and forget not all His benefits, who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit and crowns you with love and compassion, who satisfies your desires with good things so that your youth is renewed like the eagles.

Lamentations 3:21-23

Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope. Because of the Lord’s great love, we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.

2 Corinthians 3:18

And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.

2 Corinthians 5:17

Therefore, if any man is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold new things have come. All these things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation.

2 Corinthians 4:16-18
Therefore we do not lose heart, but though our outer man is decaying, our inner man is being renewed day by day. For momentary, light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison, while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal.

2 Peter 3:8,9

But do not let this one fact escape your notice, beloved, that with the Lord one day is like a thousand years and a thousand years like one day. The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead, he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.