Church is being built by Jesus Who said: «Follow Me, and I will make you». It means that until you start following Jesus there are not guarantees that your life will change. Changes do not result from religious activities; they are a result of following Jesus.
According to the Bible, God´s highest goal for us is make us in likeness of Christ. He wants us to be like Jesus. Though, it doesn´t happen in at blink of an eye, it´s rather a process that develops as we allow the God´s word and other God´s means on to influence us. Spending your time with Jesus by reading the word of God and praying, fellowship with other christians, decently overcoming difficulties and pain – all these things help you to transform more and more, just as it happened to Jesus disciples.
«Again, therefore, Jesus spoke to them, saying, “I am the light of the world. He who follows me will not walk in the darkness, but will have the light of life.”». (John 8:12).
Jesus Himself invites us to learn from Him, then we will find rest for our souls and release from yoke that burdens us.
«..as His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue, by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust» (2 Peter, 1:3-4).
«And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God» (Romans, 12:2).
When I read the Word, meditate on it and apply it to my life, I initiate changes in my life and actions, since my thoughts and views grow alike with God’s thoughts and His will. God says that His thoughts and His ways are not like ours.
While growing up and changing we will see how we become more patient. Patience is a fruit of the Spirit God wants to be visible in your life. Therefore, God sometimes permits conflicts in your life, to help you with developing the fruit of patience. God desires to trample our pride thus transforming us into likeness of loving, persevere Christ. You are still arrogant if you show resentment at nonsense. God desires to help you to get rid of this arrogance. That´s why He allows people to do wrong to us. God is trying to teach us how to handle such situations, so that we are able to build relationships with people as His representatives on this Earth. Everything God permits in our life works together for good if we let Him mould us.
God does this work through the Holy Spirit. We can collaborate with God in this process by our full obedience to Him.
God wants to change you. If you are shy today, God wants to see you bold. If you are doubtful today, God wants to see you full of faith. Even if you are shy and pretend being as such because you inherited this quality from your ancestors and relatives – let me tell you, God desires to change it in you. He will accomplish this task if you allow it to Him.
If we never stop following Jesus, He will change us making those changes more and more obvious in our lives and for the people around us.
The fact that we have become believers yet doesn´t mean we have become perfect. That´s why we should not represent ourselves as such in front of other people. Surely we are not perfect. We are still undergoing improvement process. We are still under process of changes as we follow Jesus and submit ourselves to His Spirit. God changes us as we renew our mind and put aside our old man, as we deny ourselves and carry the cross. All these things have an impact on us helping us to behold the glory of the Lord.
We must keep God’s call to change right before our eyes as one of the most important goals. As soon as we come to God and enter His Kingdom, the desire to change and grow into the likeness of Jesus should be our single desire and our daily bread. And when we start changing, the things around us will change along with the inward changes we experience. Then the most awful situation will change for better and terrible problems will be solved. All of this will happen along with the transformation of our character in the process of the spiritual growth.
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.
