One of my favorite verses comes from 2 Corinthians 3:18 as it says,“And we all, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.” It gets me all sorts of excited when I think about these words that teach us that we are being transformed into His likeness. I love that it’s not a past tense or a future tense, but a present- are being transformed. There’s something so encouraging, so challenging and so exciting about this.
I love this truth so much that I decided to make it my anthem and my goal for this year- to pursue transformation. In the beginning of January I made this proclamation and explained five different ways that I want to grow- to be able to look back and pinpoint that I have been transformed more into His likeness. Being that we are now halfway through the year (what?!?!), I want to revisit my goals and see how I'm doing.
Transformation isn’t like the lovely crockpot that is brewing up my habenero beef tostadas for dinner tonight, with the “set it and forget it” mentality. Instead it's a challenging sometimes gut-wrenching process that needs to be monitored, prodded, encouraged and pursued with each and every step. Just like toning up those biceps in the gym, it takes intentionality and follow-through (but it's so rewarding!). So, for the next few weeks I am going to touch base with each of my growth areas, not just for me to see where I’m at, but to hopefully encourage you to keep challenging yourself in the areas you’d like to grow as well.
My first goal was “Above all else, I want to give myself more to the Lord – to be transformed into a better reflection of Him. To dig deeper into His word and come out knowing more about Him and understanding how I can be a better communicator of His love.”
This is the most important one on my list and there is always much, much room for improvement here. I have made definite progress in giving myself more to Him by giving Him my dreams. Making this choice day in and day out has been so rewarding, giving me great joy and more freedom as I give Him the power to guide me. On the other hand, I have not been as successful in my efforts at digging deeper into His word. I seriously don't know what the catch is there- it’s not a difficult thing. I love to read, I’m all about words (clearly), but for whatever reason I am still terrible at daily Bible reading!!! It’s SO SIMPLE. Insert angry/annoyed emoticon. There’s no excuse. I need to start… today. I am going to start by reading a Psalm a day (encouraged by our pastor Matt in church this Sunday) to build a habit of being in the word. Once I build that habit back up a little bit, I’d like to add another book of the Bible in the mix- maybe one I haven’t spent much time in before, like Daniel or something. For some reason I feel in the mood to be in the Old Testament; any suggestions of a favorite book to dig into?
I have a really hopeful expectation for this year, and I really do want be able to look back and see growth. God created us to be reflections of His glory, but we need to do our part – by His power, let’s be transformed.
Want to join me in this? I’d love to hear how your pursuit for transformation in 2015 is happening- please share with me!If you’re a fellow blogger we could even start a link up! Let’s be transformational ya’ll!