To Be Like Jesus

by Elizabeth Stewart

Have you ever looked in the mirror and realized that something has got to change? "I need to get a haircut." "It's time to get serious about losing some weight!" "This outfit is not flattering on me at all!" We can choose to respond to what we see in the mirror by making the needed changes or we may choose to respond by avoiding the mirror and the truth it reveals to us.

God's Word is the mirror that God has given us to show us the areas in our life where change is needed. Similarly to the way we may respond to the mirror that hangs in our home, we can choose to respond to God's Word by making the needed changes or by avoiding God's Word and the conviction that it brings into our lives.

When I was a young girl there was a song we used to sing that went like this, "To be like Jesus, to be like Jesus, all I ask, is to be like Him." The more we grow and mature in Christ, allowing Him to show us what needs to be changed in our lives and then letting Him help us to change, the more we become like Him.  Amazing things will happen if we dare to pray, "Lord, change me" and then yield and surrender to God as He begins to do so.

First Corinthians 3:18 gives us some practical insights into cooperating with God as He changes us.

1) Approach God with an unveiled face.
When we read God's Word, come to Him in prayer, or enter His presence in worship, it's important that we come unmasked and unhidden. God desires us to come before Him in openness and honesty.

2) Continually look at Jesus through His Word.
The Bible is the tool that the Holy Spirit uses for renewing our mind, restoring our soul and transforming us into the image of Christ. The more we grow in knowing and understanding and loving the Jesus of the Bible through a lifestyle of spending time in the Word of God the more we will become like Him.

3) True change within is a supernatural work of God's Spirit.
God convicts us of areas we need to change. We agree with what He is showing us. We choose to take the necessary steps to change in those areas. But, the actual inward transformation of our mind and heart that changes us in our innermost being is something supernatural that the Holy Spirit does as we yield to His work in us.

4) True change is progressive.
We are never too old to change and we are never too old to need to change. As long as we are breathing, we should be growing and changing, from glory to glory, becoming more and more mature in our walk with God and more and more like Jesus.

The good news is that as long as we are willing to change, as long as we are yielded and surrendered to God's word and His work and His will in our lives, then we will continue to grow and change more and more and more until that glorious day when we are with Christ and fully, completely, wholly transformed into His likeness.

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