The Beauty of Change

Growth and change are a big part of life. In fact, without change we’ll never truly enjoy our lives and become everything God has created us to be.

I think one of the greatest lessons God ever taught me is that we can’t change ourselves—only God can help us grow and mature. How does he do it? Growth occurs when we spend time with the Lord and pursue a more intimate relationship with Him.

When we take time to read and study His Word, the Bible says we are constantly being transfigured into His very own image in ever increasing splendor and from one degree of glory to another...(2 Corinthians 3:18 AMPC).

God changes us in degrees—from glory to glory. Throughout our lives, He continues to deal with us and helps us grow from one level to the next, gradually becoming more like Him.

What does it mean for God to “deal” with us? It means He’ll cause us to begin noticing things in our behavior that maybe we didn’t notice before. Thank heaven, He doesn’t show us everything we need to change all at once or we’d be overwhelmed! But God knows exactly how much we can handle and the perfect time to deal with us about the issues in our lives.

I’ll give you an example. Over the years, the Lord has had to deal with me quite a bit about my mouth. I used to be very harsh, judgmental and critical. And when it came to my husband, Dave, there were times when I could be very rebellious or defiant in my tone with him.

I can remember so many times when Dave and I would get into an argument, then afterwards the Lord would speak to my heart and say, “I want you to go and apologize to him.” But God! I would think. He’s guilty, too. Why can’t he come and apologize to me?

It used to make me so mad that Dave could “get away with things” that I couldn’t. But the truth is, the Lord deals with each one of us at different times about different things. I’m not responsible for Dave—I’m only responsible to cooperate with the Holy Spirit and obey what He shows me to do.

It’s also vitally important to remember that when God deals with us—when the Holy Spirit convicts us of something that needs to change—we can’t do it on our own. It is only through God’s strength that we can change. It’s only through spending time with Him that we can become more like Christ.

So, this is what I do now when I sense the Lord dealing with me in an area. I’ll pray, “God, thank You for shining a light on this area. I know I need to change, but I also know You are the only One Who can change me. I’m relying on your grace and strength to help me as I do my best to obey what You’ve shown me.”

While we’re in the growing process, it’s important to stay encouraged—it’s important to realize that our spiritual growth reaps tremendous benefits for ourselves and others.

Yes, God wants us each of us to accept Jesus Christ so we can spend eternal life with Him in Heaven. But He also wants us to spiritually grow and mature so we can have a supernatural impact here on earth!

2 Corinthians 5:20 says, We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making His appeal through us...(NIV).

In other words, we are here to show Jesus to the world. In fact, each and every one of us has a distinct sphere of influence—there are people you can reach for Christ that nobody else can! That’s why Jesus says it’s so important for you to “let your light shine before others” (see Matthew 5:16).

I think when it comes down to it, we all just want to be happy—we would all like to have some peace and joy. And here’s the truth: Growing up spiritually is the only way we’ll ever truly be happy.

You see, people who are immature are almost always controlled by their circumstances—they are only happy when everything is going well around them. Immature people are often selfish and make decisions based on how they feel “in the moment”—a recipe for true misery!

How do I know? I lived this way for years. I thought, I’ll be happy if Dave stops playing so much golf. I’ll be happy when my kids start helping me more around the house. I’ll be happy when that aggravating person at church finally changes.

But God helped me learn a really important lesson: If we’re going to wait for our circumstances to change in order to be happy, then we’ll never be happy!

There’s a better way. God wants to help us rise above the circumstances in our lives. He desires for us to have His joy and peace on the inside...even when everything on the outside isn’t perfect.

Growing up in God is really the answer to so many of our problems. Like I said, for years I wanted everyone and everything else to change. I wanted Dave to change; I wanted my kids to change; and I wanted my circumstances to change.

But God has a better plan! He says to us, “I want you to change.”

I really want you to get what I’m about to say: God loves you tremendously. In fact, there’s nothing you can ever do to make Him love you more than He does right now! Growing and changing isn’t about trying to be “perfect” or earning God’s love and approval.

However, the Lord loves you too much to let you stay where you are. I’ve learned that when God shows us an area of our life that needs to change, He’s doing it out of love—He loves us enough to help us change.

When I teach on transformation, I often like to use the illustration of a butterfly. It still amazes me how God takes a caterpillar—something restricted to slowly crawling around in the dirt—and transforms it into a beautiful butterfly that is free to go anywhere it wants.

When it’s time for transformation, somehow the caterpillar knows it’s time for a change. So it crawls up on a branch somewhere in private and spins a cocoon. In this cocoon, the caterpillar then completely turns into liquid, then forms into something brand new.

Similarly, when the Lord wants to help us change and grow, we can sometimes sense that “it’s time.” God will often begin working in our hearts in very private ways—in ways we couldn’t describe to others if we tried. Then, just like the caterpillar, He begins to change and transform us into something completely different—freer and more beautiful than ever before.

Sometimes it’s easy to get frustrated with ourselves and think we’ll never change. I used to have bad habits and personality flaws that seemed impossible to fix...but it’s not impossible with God.

That’s why it’s so important to never give up! During those times when you feel like you’re the worst “worm” on earth, God is getting ready to put you in your own little cocoon and produce something beautiful and brand new.

Remember, spiritual growth is a process. None of us “arrives” overnight, but little by little, God changes us and a makes us what we ought to be...He makes us more like Him.