"Therefore,
I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living
sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God – this is your spiritual act of worship.
Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by
the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's
will is – his good, pleasing and perfect will." (Romans 12:1-2)
As much as I hate to admit it, the
older I get, the less I enjoy or embrace change in my life. However, change is
something we all deal with, sometimes on a daily basis. Whether we like change
or not, it is going to happen. In fact, one of the primary doctrines of
Christianity is based on change.
When we are born again, we are changed
into new beings. 2 Corinthians 5:17 tells us:
"Therefore,
if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has
come!"
This is called “regeneration” or being
born again. Sometimes this change occurs slowly, and at other times, it happens
very quickly. The changes we experience as new creations take place in the
spiritual, emotional, and even physical aspects of our lives. For example, I
suffered from chronic ulcers when I was in college. As soon as I accepted Jesus
Christ as my savior, I was spontaneously healed from my ulcers, even though I
didn't specifically ask to be healed of them. God is just that good.
The changes that take place during our
conversion experience aren’t a one-time event either – they continue to occur
throughout our lives as we are transformed into the likeness of Christ. I
honestly believe that we would explode if we were to experience in an instant
all of the changes God wants to perform in our lives!
"And we, who with unveiled faces
all reflect the Lord's glory, are being transformed into his likeness with
ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit." (2 Corinthians 3:18)
The Greek word translated as "transformed" in both of these passages comes from the word
metamorphosis, which means:
- A profound change in form from one stage to the next in the life history of an organism, such as a caterpillar to a butterfly
- A complete change of form, structure, or substance
- Any complete change in appearance, character, circumstances, etc.
While the process of transformation in
our lives is inevitable, it isn’t always easy or without great struggle. Face
it – we like various aspects of our old nature and like to keep the old person
around to party with. However, we don’t get to decide when and how God will
change us, resist as we may. The more we struggle, the harder the change, and
the greater the pain. Today I want to look at the concept of allowing God to
change us into the people He wants us to be.
The
Potter and the Clay
The prophets Jeremiah and Isaiah both
including object lessons about potters and clay in their writings.
"This
is the word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD: 'Go down to the potter's
house, and there I will give you my message.' So I went down to the potter's
house, and I saw him working at the wheel. But the pot he was shaping from the
clay was marred in his hands; so the potter formed it into another pot, shaping
it as seemed best to him." (Jeremiah
18:1-4)
There
are several important lessons to be learned from these few verses:
- The clay did not choose to jump up on the potter’s wheel – the potter chose the clay and positioned it where he wanted it, in the center of the wheel. Likewise, we did not choose God – He chose us and placed us in the center of His will where He could mold us and shape us into the vessels He wants us to be. The problem is, we keep drifting away from the center of God’s will, and then we get wobbly and out of balance
- When the potter realized that that the pot was marred, he changed the form of the pot into something else, shaping it as seemed best to him. Sometimes we have character defects that prevent us from being effective in certain areas of our Christian walk. Perhaps these defects make us incapable of serving in a certain ministry. Sometimes God can remove these defects, and sometimes He simply chooses to use us in a different way than we think we should be used.
- The key point is this – God gets to choose what shape He wants to form us into. We get no say in the matter. Perhaps we really want to be something specific, like a pastor or a missionary or an evangelist. If that isn’t what God wants to use us for, we have two choices: Rebel and make our lives miserable from the struggle that will ensue (God wins, we lose), or Submit and allow God to use us for His glory (God wins, we win).
"You
turn things upside down, as if the potter were thought to be like the clay!
Shall what is formed say to him who formed it, 'He did not make me'? Can the
pot say of the potter, 'He knows nothing'?" (Isaiah 29:16)
"Woe
to him who quarrels with his Maker, to him who is but a potsherd among the
potsherds on the ground. Does the clay say to the potter, 'What are you
making?' Does your work say, 'He has no hands'?" (Isaiah 45:9)
In these two passages from Isaiah, we
find examples of the created being questioning the Creator:
- How often do we think that God doesn’t know what He is doing?
- How often do we blame God when things don’t go our way?
- How often do we accuse God of not being fair because He doesn’t treat us the same way as those around us?
- How often do we try to tell God how to do His job?
Romans 9:20-21 paraphrases these
earlier passages:
"But
who are you, O man, to talk back to God? 'Shall what is formed say to him who
formed it, "Why did you make me like this?" ' Does not the potter have the
right to make out of the same lump of clay some pottery for noble purposes and
some for common use?"
We play a dangerous game that we cannot
win when we go toe to toe with our Creator. God knows us better than we know
ourselves, and knows best what we are capable of doing. Who are we to question
what God is trying to do in our lives? Fortunately, God is a Gentleman, and
because He is, He won’t force us to do anything or change any aspect of our
character. After all, He gave us free will, so we have the right to resist Him
if we want to. However, God will make us so miserable that we will wish we had
submitted to His will. The best course of action is for us to willingly submit
to the transforming work that God wants to do in our lives.
None of us has arrived when it comes to
spiritual transformation. We all have room for improvement. Perhaps you’re
dealing with a particular area that you want God to change, but you can’t seem
to let it go. Perhaps God has been prompting you to allow Him to make a change
that you really don’t want to make.
Each of us is in a state of
transformation, becoming the vessel that God wants us to be. Change can only
take place if we are willing to allow it. My prayer for each one of us is that
we become transformed into the glorious creatures that God designed us to be.
In Romans 12:2, we are told that transformation starts by renewing our minds.
This means that we need to correct our thinking about allowing God to take over
every part of our lives. If you are struggling with making changes in our life,
you are not alone. I invite you to spend some time seeking God’s will and
submitting yourself to the gentle touch of the Master Potter.
Have a blessed week!
Pastor David
