New year, new you?
The new year is here! Wow, I REEALLLY wasn’t ready… were you? Each year so many people make resolutions to celebrate the new year. Some are resolute to lose weight (go figure, that’s number one) some may be resolute to get a new job, try a new style, stop doing something, or just live differently. Well how about committing to a reasonable resolution for 2024? How about
(2 Corinthians 3:18) And we all who... contemplate the Lord's glory are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.
You have an unlimited capacity to grow spiritually in your relationship with God. Through the power of the Holy Spirit, you can be like Jesus, to love, trust, and obey God with your life, and by doing so God will marvelously pull others toward Himself through you. Maybe you should read that again…
What things in your life will change if you take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going to work, and walking around life—and place it before God as an offering? Seeking His face instead of His hand. What would be the result if every believer in our church sought to love, trust, and obey God daily? To be transformed!
May I give you some ideas?
Take a moment and journal how you spend your time. (When I did this I was shocked by how much time I was in front of a screen of some sort.)
Can you identify three mature people of faith that you could talk with about growing in Christ? Ask them what it would take for God to do a new transformation.
Enlist a special team (2-3) of prayer warriors to petition God for your personal as well as a church-wide burden for spiritual transformation.
Being transformed to become like the Lord Jesus is not a mysterious or impossible task. We focus on Jesus as our life's highest priority, we spend time getting to know him, and the Spirit transforms us to become like him. Paul talks about this process of transformation as having the fruit of the Spirit "ripen" in our lives. We begin to take on the character and qualities of Jesus — love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control (Galatians 5:22-23) — as we allow the Spirit to lead us (Galatians 5:18; Romans 8:1-4, 14). When we are healthy spiritually, this transformative process happens through the power of the Holy Spirit.
Paul uses the language of dancing to help us understand our part in this process: Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit (Galatians 5:25). I envision our dance involving three moves as we keep in step with the Spirit's music and keep our focus on Jesus as he leads us in the dance of grace.
The first step simply involves acknowledging that the Spirit is at work in us.
Step Two is to seek Godly character (2 Peter 1:3-4). We intentionally strive to grow:
• Faith.
• Knowledge.
• Self-control.
• Perseverance.
• Godliness.
• Mutual affection.
• Love.
Finally, in step Three, we relinquish the lead in our dance with grace.
In this dance, we are the partner and the learner. We are certainly not the lead. We focus on Jesus. Our eyes are on him. Our heart beats for him and what he longs to do with us and through us. We offer ourselves, all of our lives, to him because he has demonstrated his love for us (Romans 12:1-2). The Spirit transforms us into better dancers for the great celebration before the Father's throne!
O.K. for 2024 let’s dance the dance of transformation! My prayer for 2024:
Lord, forgive my unbelief. Please forgive the times I’ve doubted that You could/would ever change me. Grow my faith so that I will live 2 Corinthians 5:17 DAILY. Forgive my hard-heartedness, my hardheadedness, my weariness, and forgetfulness to pray and to seek you in your Word and in your people. Strengthen me in the Power and the presence of the Holy Spirit, soften this hard head, and allow me to have a soft heart through you. I thank you, God, that you never give up on me. Remind me again of how You’ve changed my own heart. And that you are changing me daily! I desire for 2024 to be a year of great growth and transformation. Make me a better man this year. I want to dance with you a dance of transformations. You know what is on my heart– Take my heart. Amen
Until next time
Pastor Mike
