Wednesday August 29, 2018

 

If we were to make an honest assessment of our lives, we would conclude that our tendency is to be more concerned with what is happening on the outside of us and less concerned with what is happening on the inside. Is it not true, that most people exercise to look good on the outside and not to be healthy on the inside? Just think about the incredible amount of money we spend on things like clothing, shoes, jewelry, hair stylists, anti-aging creams, and make up in order to look good. Contrast this with the amount of time and money we invest in order to become men and women of character.

 

If we evaluate or prayer life, we will find that it is mostly focused on what is happening on the outside and we spend very little time asking God to change us on the inside. When we pray to God, we ask Him to give us things like a new house, new car, better job, more money…these are mostly external and temporal things. When we are not busy asking God for things, we are asking Him to change the people around us. We want Him to change our spouse, children, our boss, or our neighbors. However, we spend little time asking Him to change us. We want God to change our circumstances. However, when we open our Bibles, we discover that God’s ultimate goal is to renew us and to change us into the image of His son Jesus.

 

Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator. Colossians 3:9-10 NIV

 

God is in the process of renewing our lives. The fact that a person may believe in God, pray every day, or attend church each Sunday does not make them a person of character. It is only through the process of renewal that God wants to change us into the image of His son. In order for this renewal to take place, we must be willing to allow God to remove the old way of thinking and allow Him to reprogram us with a new way of thinking. This is similar to refinishing your furniture. First, you strip away the old paint and varnish, then you replace it with new paint and varnish. Just like renewing furniture, God wants to take us through the process of renewing us on the inside. God is in the process of working inside you. His ultimate goal is to renew your life from the inside out.

 

Tomorrow’s post will focus on how God wants to work His renewal process in our lives. Meanwhile, I pray that you would consider allowing God to work deeper inside of you, that you desire for renewal would exceed your desire for Him to change the circumstances around you.