Welcoming Change

I was reading something that a new friend of mine wrote about change and it struck me that I'm really not very well prepared for it to happen in my own life. More than anything, I long to be a man after God's own heart. But that desire is so often waylaid by my own inabilities to be righteous by myself. I'm a conflicted host. It's almost as if I shun God's revolutionary works in my life even as I call out to Him.

My problem essentially lies in the fact that when God really becomes the Lord of your life, He not only raises up, but He also denies and rebukes. I think sometimes I want the raising up part of spiritual growth without any of the admonition. I think what it all comes down to is that I haven't really made a suitable welcome for my God. I really need to develop humility and patience. Humility because despite all my best efforts, it is the Holy Spirit's powerful work that incrementally transforms my life, not my own work or ingenuity. Patience because this transformation requires time, error, and failure, and is far from immediate. I've believed since I was about five years old, and I still feel like Christ's work has only just begun in me.

I once read something that said "we were created in love in order to love, so that we may finally be embraced forever by a greater Love that will never let us go". That sounds about as good as it gets to me. I know I still have a long way to go to become the man that God created me to be. I think a good place to start would be to make a humble welcome for Him. I was reading something that a new friend of mine wrote about change and it struck me that I'm really not very well prepared for it to happen in my own life. More than anything, I long to be a man after God's own heart. But that desire is so often waylaid by my own inabilities to be righteous by myself. I'm a conflicted host. It's almost as if I shun God's revolutionary works in my life even as I call out to Him.

My problem essentially lies in the fact that when God really becomes the Lord of your life, He not only raises up, but He also denies and rebukes. I think sometimes I want the raising up part of spiritual growth without any of the admonition. I think what it all comes down to is that I haven't really made a suitable welcome for my God. I really need to develop humility and patience. Humility because despite all my best efforts, it is the Holy Spirit's powerful work that incrementally transforms my life, not my own work or ingenuity. Patience because this transformation requires time, error, and failure, and is far from immediate. I've believed since I was about five years old, and I still feel like Christ's work has only just begun in me.

I once read something that said "we were created in love in order to love, so that we may finally be embraced forever by a greater Love that will never let us go". That sounds about as good as it gets to me. I know I still have a long way to go to become the man that God created me to be. I think a good place to start would be to make a humble welcome for Him.