You don't change God. He changes you. -

At some point in your Christian walk, you cried out to God, “Lord, change me! Do whatever You need to make me more like You!” Oh, and He listened! Then, once it starts to really hurt, we cry to God for help and grace and strength and mercy, wondering why everything seems to get worse! God is a great listener. He even listens to the things that we didn’t actually say to Him because He knows our hearts.

Submitting to God is a life-long process, a daily or even minute-by-minute process at times! But God is the one constant when everything is changing. Relationships, circumstances, hopes and dreams, our struggles and the way we think or view the world, or how we approach our faith- everything is subject to change while we just try to roll with the punches. However, that process is intentionally beautifully difficult because it keeps us in a perpetual state that Paul said was the transformation of our image into His, being changed “from glory to glory”. God is the same yesterday, today and forever, but you are being changed from one beautiful state of being in Christ to the next one, as the Lord brings you to it.

God is the same yesterday, today and forever, but you are being changed from one beautiful state of being in Christ to the next one, as the Lord brings you to it.

Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom, but sometimes, to get that freedom from the tyranny of the enemy, you and the Lord have to fight a Revolutionary War. Worship wins wars! The Spirit of the Lord dwells in worship. Yes, He’s present everywhere and at all times, but He chooses to live within worship. Paul wrote that when you see the glory of the Lord it transforms you into His image, like looking into a mirror. How do you see the glory of the Lord? You worship Him. You walk yourself right into His presence, entering His gates with the key He gave you: Thanksgiving (Psalm 100:4). The process of transformation is life-long, but ministry to the Lord will keep you close to Him so that while you are experiencing those guaranteed “growing pains” He can minister to you in return.

Thought for today

Think of it this way: If you packed up all your things and went camping and invited your friends, you are still the host and that site is still your dwelling place. Food is there, friendship and even rest. However, if your friends came to your actual house, where you have put down your roots and set up all your possessions, and pictures and creature comforts, you would be able to offer them so much more when they wanted to come visit! It’s a really basic example to paint a picture of having the Lord with you versus going to where He is. “Where the Spirit of the Lord is there is liberty”, but when we see the Lord with “unveiled faces”, we can be transformed, changed by His glory. Your face is “unveiled” in worship, where your spirit is the most open and vulnerable. God lives within praise, and you let yourself in with thanksgiving! Don’t fear change, when God initiates it, He will lead you to your next “glory”!