Changed From the Inside – Good News
Good morning, it seems like forever since we last chatted. Here in BC, it was the Family Day long weekend, so there have been no Gleanings since Friday.
We got a skiff of snow last night. Most of it is already gone except for some shady spots on the lawn. It melted into thick, scraper-resistant ice on the windshield, making it harder than usual to get the car ready for Kathy to go to work. I found myself mumbling, rather than being grateful, to live in a place where snow is rare.
Ooops!
How easy it is to slip back into old habits, whether it’s grumbling or something else. I’m grateful that God is so patient with us and never gives up on His promise to conform us into the image of Jesus.
I can’t generate enough willpower to break all the old fleshly ways under my own strength. I need Holy Spirit power to break me through. Fortunately, he dwells in all believers.
If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you. John 14:15-17
He transforms us from the inside out. Those are the places we can’t reach ourselves. We can modify our behaviors to some degree by willpower alone, but real transforming power comes from deep within.
Sometimes, he changes us instantaneously, and at others, it is a long process. I can be a slow learner.
I am grateful that I didn’t have to change and get my life cleaned up before approaching His throne of Grace. I would never be able to do it without the imputed righteousness of Christ.
He sees me covered by the blood and growing, and that pleases Him. He hears the Spirit groaning when I don’t even know what to pray for, and He answers.
I’m not all that I will be, but I’m far from what I was. All of that is His work in me (and you).
I’m learning to repent more quickly, and I’m likely to stand longer between falls, and that’s progress.
Praise god for the changes He is making in us all.
Be blessed
Kevin