Transform

When the merchant found a pearl of great value, he sold everything he had and bought it.
When a little leaven is put in measures of flour, all of it becomes leavened.
A lady touched His cloak, a soldier made a bold statement, a tax collector got convicted- Jesus changed their lives and redeemed their situation powerfully.
When God's people marched around Jericho, the walls fell.
When Pharaoh held the Israelites captive 10 plagues struck his people.
Lazarus was dead and buried, a widow didn't have enough oil, 5,000 were without food- and God moved in a big way.

Our God is a God of transformation. 

The lives that He touches, He changes. The people that choose to follow Him become radically different than the rest of the world. When His love impacts a sinners heart it literally goes from dead to alive and the fruits of the sinners life change from hate to love, selfishness to generosity, pride to humility, immorality to holiness, and desperation to hope. This is radical transformation. This is what I want in my life. 

Every year, the week before New Year's I start thinking about what I want the next year to look like. And I know, New Year's resolutions are notorious for failing and/or backfiring, so I generally don't create them. But I do choose one word that I want to focus on for the next 365 days. The first year it was hope, then trust, then love, and now I've chosen "Transform". I want to live every moment this year becoming more and more like Christ, I want my heart to break for what breaks His and I want to be pressed and molded and shaped into the jar of clay He wants me to be. In many ways, I've already seen this prayer answered. 

Moving to a new state, living with a new family, attending a new church, working new jobs, and making new friends contains a lot of opportunities for transformation. I've seen these outward changes cause at least small shifts in my outlook on and attitude in life. The challenges this year has offered have pushed me to grow in new ways that I am so thankful for. But the year is still young and I have a lot more areas I know I need to change in. There are three specific one's I've been made aware of recently and I'm writing this hoping that you can be encouraged and maybe challenged by how God's power transforms lives. 

1. Gratitude 
As much as the media and news stories tell us differently- right now is a really great time to be alive. Look around! We can travel across the country or across the world very quickly and safely whenever we wish. We are never without a variety of food. We can communicate with anyone at anytime. The church is not persecuted in most of the world, we worship in various churches, and we can easily access books filled with wisdom from other people. The world we live in actually gives us a lot to be thankful for. And I don't know your situation, but personally this is something I've noticed a struggle with. Things like grades, pressure, anxiety, busyness, or drama cloud my vision and if you asked me what I was grateful for the answers would come hesitantly. I'm not trying to make our struggles (or your struggles) less legitimate- life is hard and has a lot of trials, but I am realizing that we don't count our blessings enough. And not only materialistic blessings, but spiritual ones as well. How often do we actually thank God for raising us from the dead? Or bringing our walls down? Or thank Jesus for dying on a cross for us? Luke 17 tells the story of 10 lepers that Jesus passed and commanded to go to a priest to be healed. All 10 diseased people were healed. How many gave thanks? One. I want to be that one. I don't just want the outward transformation, I want to be transformed like the one leper was. Volumes have been written on the importance of gratitude so I'll leave it at this: I pray that the Lord would help me be more grateful and hope you'll join me in returning to God to give thanks often.

2. Humility
C.S. Lewis says that "humility isn't thinking less of yourself, it's thinking of yourself less". 1 Corinthians 13 says that love is not boastful or arrogant. Jonathan Edwards says "Nothing sets a Christian so much out of the devil's reach then humility". If I think about my life honestly, there is a lot of pride. I find myself cherishing or dwelling on the idea of my own importance, in conversations I talk a lot about me and try to drop hints at all the things I've accomplished, and my everyday actions prove that my first priority is often my own comfort and convenience. Pride leads to anxiety, feelings of inadequacy, shallow friendships, and it's gravity prompted satan's fall. Friends, if you know me and witness the pride in my life- call me out. Humility fights to serve other's, humility looks like what Jesus did, and that's what I want my life to look like, so enough about me. 

3. Counting the cost
Sometimes, it looks like Jesus asks us to give up a lot- too much. Anything that does not glorify Him or sanctify us is a weight that must be thrown off. Every impure thought, sketchy movie, addictive pastime, harsh word, laziness, or favorite sin must be fought vehemently. I recently read the following 
definition of sin "Whatever weakens your reason, impairs the tenderness of your conscience, obscures your sense of God, or takes off your relish of spiritual things; in short, whatever increases the strength and authority of your body over your mind, that thing is sin to you, however innocent it may be in itself" -Susanna Wesley (Mother of John Wesley). Reading this, I realized how much sin I was tolerating in my life simply because it didn't fit a popular image of "sin". And even in the big battles I knew I needed to fight I wasn't really willing to sacrifice the things I wanted. For Jesus, we must give up a lot, there is no doubt. But is it worth it? Yes. No doubt. The things we must throw off are lesser pleasures of the flesh and are nothing compared to the riches of knowing Christ more. I've found myself not willing to truly flee from sin because it was too high a price, not worth the cost. This year, I want to accurately count the cost of following Jesus and genuinely say that I am His at any cost. Sin I've chosen to cling to, pleasures I flee to, people I take refuge in, escapes I find freedom in- all of it is a cost but it's a small price to pay for the salvation I've received, the joy of sanctification, and the hope of glorification. 

My God is a God of transformation and my desire is to see Him transform my life through the new opportunities and people He's given me so that His grace fills me and is evident in my life. These three areas are starting points to focus on and I ask that you join me in considering how Jesus is asking you to change for Him today. We are His workmanship, let Him transform your life to reflect that more each day.