CHANGE
Don't change yourselves to be like the people of this world, but let God change you inside with a new way of thinking. Then you will be able to understand and accept what God wants for you. You will able know what is good and pleasing to Him and what is perfect. (Romans 12:2)
When you recognize a need to change and your desire to be changed is greater than your desire to make excuses, you are getting there. This was a thought that came to me recently and as I considered it, I was reminded of this verse in Romans. Other translations warn us not to be conformed to this world, but instead be transformed by the renewing of our minds. Truly the truth is transforming!
The thing I like about the easy to read version of the bible is that is makes it clear that we should not change ourselves. The person God created naturally desires God. That is why we are not comfortable when we go against Him. It is also why we are not comfortable when we try to earn His love. We cannot earn what we already have, so when we try to manufacture something rather than just knowing from Him what pleases Him things get rocky.
You see, if we come up with something outside of what His will is, then we have a need to convince others that this is right and in so doing we attempt to make the changes that only God can do properly.
When we speak of entering that tunnel that takes us along the way to where God is carrying us, if we are not free from every other sort of influence we will more than likely miss what is there for us. In fact, we may not even start that journey. Inside, we must be confident that God is taking us there. There may be times when we are simply there like when the Disciples encountered Jesus in the storm and once he was in the boat, they were at their destination.
There may be other times when the water is smooth and we just float along, but we also need recognize when it is time to pick up the oars and if we encounter a storm, we must remember that Jesus started this journey and He is able to complete it.
Ultimately, it is this change that brings us to the place of entering the Kingdom of God. I am not speaking of heaven here, I am speaking of the Kingdom that Jesus preached; the good news of the Kingdom of God. The now, in this life time, Kingdom that Jesus revealed and told us to go and do the same.
This is why Paul said to present ourselves to God. God said, “This is my beloved Son…hear Him.” Jesus told us that those who had ears to hear should hear what the Spirit of the Lord says. He also indicated that we should watch and learn and act on what we learned. Otherwise we could be guilty of always hearing and never learning or understanding.