Greetings to you, my dear friends! Grace and peace to you from God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ! We are still talking about the need to change and to be transformed into the image of Jesus Christ. It is impossible without following Christ. Jesus transforms those that follow Him. Jesus will change you if you follow Him!I have yet to meet a follower of Christ that has not been changes. If you go to church and consider yourself to be a believer, but do not experience changes in your life, there is a problem – obviously you are not following Jesus. When a person follows Jesus, changes are unavoidable.How did I come to such a conclusion? I saw that not everyone who comes to church is a follower of Christ. Some people in churches follow other people and not Jesus. There are some believers that only look for personal benefits and do not seek the will of Jesus.In order for me to change I need to follow Jesus. It means I need to follow and submit to His Word and His instructions. It means to spend time with Him to learn His heart and to participate in His mission. To follow Christ also means to imitate Him in all things. It means to react like He reacts, to speak like He speaks, to love what He loves and to hate what He hates.Let’s look at one more verse of Scripture where we see God making an emphasis on the importance of changing one’s character:
«But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. To Him be the glory both now and forever. Amen» (2 Peter, 3:18).
The key word in this verse is ‘grow’. God calls every one of us to „grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ”.
What does it mean to grow? Growing means changes. Every time when you see the word „grow” in the Bible, you must understand that it is a call to change. If I say I am growing it implies changes in my life and character.Have you ever seen a butterfly? Undoubtedly. A butterfly is one of the most beautiful of God’s creatures. But we know that it also is the final stage of this creature. In the beginning this creature is quite ugly; it is a caterpillar, similar to worm. Some time goes by and this caterpillar changes into a brown cocoon that is also quite ugly. And only afterwards a cocoon changes into a butterfly. At first it does not look beautiful either. After some time this almost colourless creature is transformed into a colourful masterpiece, a making of God’s genius.The spiritual growth of a person appears somewhat similar. It is a process of continuous and unceasing changes. God calls us to grow and change. He desires us not to stay at the stage of a caterpillar or a cocoon; He wants to see us as His finished masterpiece.If you are not growing, it is because you are not striving to go higher. Isn’t that the truth that in order for a person to grow in natural, he must do some things? He needs to nurture his body, otherwise it won’t grow. Just by looking at the food or smelling it and not eating it, will the body grow? Of course, not! You also need good spiritual food to grow spiritually.Many believers do exactly that: they smell the Word and then tell how wonderful it smells, and then leave. It is no wonder that so many believers in churches do not change for years. Make a decision in Jesus name that from this day forward you will change and grow in the grace and the knowledge of your Lord Jesus Christ. We will continue to talk about it tomorrow!God bless you!Pastor Rufus Ajiboye
