Day 23. How We Grow

Day 23. How We Grow

CS Lewis poses the question, “Is being a Christian hard or easy?” He prefaces it by saying the whole of Christianity to become a real son of God. So is it hard or easy? Lewis says, “both.” That is not a cop out. What we do is hard, even exhausting say some. We need to say “Yes.” That’s hard. God does the impossible in making us into sons and daughters, children of God, brothers and sisters of Christ. That’s easy for God while impossible for us. God does what we cannot possibly do for ourselves and don't even deserve. That’s grace.

Rick Warren says that we need to decide, to commit, to be intentional if we are to grow. CS Lewis says, “Let’s pretend, let’s dress up as little Christs, let's put on the Christ, let’s pretend we’re a child of God.” And when we do a wonderful thing happens. When thoughts enter our mind that should not be there if we were really like Christ, we say “Stop!” Lewis says, you see what is happening, “Christ is right there beside you turning you into a creature like himself. He is turning your pretense into reality.”

All of this would be impossible if it were something we had to do. Our hard task at most is to allow it. A wise person said that the key to change is to be aware that we want to change. Should we set a goal of becoming perfect, we would utterly fail, we would say it’s impossible, why should I try? And we wouldn't. But if I were to take a piece of paper and write on it, “I’m going to allow Christ to change me today, if only a little bit, but knowing that you want to change all of me.” Put the paper in my pocket and read it several times during each day. Pray with each reading, “Change me today.”

Be aware. There will come a day when we can look back and say, “What ever happened to that old creature? Christ really has put a new one in its place.”

Becoming aware is hard. Changing is easy.

May you be blessed as you journey to becoming a new creature in Jesus Christ.

Rick

PS. John Wesley might take exception to my prayer for a little bit of change. He said (paraphrasing), “You have not become perfect because you have not asked. Before you die? Will that content you? No, pray, ask that it be done now, today, while it is today. Today is God’s time as well as tomorrow. Make haste, make haste!”

My prayer is that I am aware now, today, that God wants to change all of me. And that it’s His task.

Day 22. Created to Become Like Christ

Day 22. Created to Become Like Christ

“Ah, but a man's reach should exceed his grasp, or what's a heaven for?”—Robert Browning

Placing ourselves in God’s hands without knowing His plan for us is a scary thing. Besides, we will lose control. Isn’t that the reason so few choose to allow the Holy Spirit to transform us?

Yet God has a plan for us completely beyond our comprehension, beyond our grasp. We are incapable of reaching it ourselves let alone understanding it. Listen to this incredulous thought: God has in mind that we will take on the character of Christ!

Not only that, God is clever enough to know that it is something that we cannot do for ourselves. It is God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, that transforms us. God before us, God beside us, God within us that keeps a vision in front of us, models life beside us, and nudges us from within us to choose what is good and noble and perfect. “Grace, grace, God’s grace. Grace that is greater than all our needs.”

We simply need to give up control. We can control our own destiny by saying "No." We can submit to God's destiny by saying "Yes." Submission, even when the plan is not clear to us, is called obedience.

When philosophers were wrestling with the question, “What is Christianity’s greatest contribution to religious thought?” CS Lewis, entering the room late, said, “That’s easy. It’s grace.”

Grace to you,

Rick