Transformed by Choice

It’s 6 a.m. and I am out in my back yard letting my three little dogs do their thing. ( yes…that thing!) This morning the sky looks like a water color portrait in shades of gray, promising that a spring rain is on it’s way. It’s  lovely but gloomy. Yet, high upon my second story roof their sits a bird singing, singing, singing. It’s beautiful.He is up their closer to those storm clouds than me, and he is singing out with all his might, chirping away a song like only a bird can chirp. The moment is priceless.

Once again I see why Jesus used the birds as an illustration of carefree trust. While I am disappointed that it’s going to rain today, the bird is taking it all in and singing his song to me. What would it be like if we were so confident in Christ’s care that we sang out in the middle of our gloomy days and our painful moments?

This week we have been looking at God’s plan and purpose to conform us into the image of Christ. Scripture tells us that God foreknew us and that he himself planned for us to be conformed into the likeness of his son. Truth from Romans 8:29.

Looking at  the entire chapter of Romans 8 we see that Paul starts out by talking about living life differently…in the Spirit. After Paul teaches on the difference of living in the flesh verses living in the Spirit, he goes into our identity as God’s children, and then right to our present sufferings. He encourages us that the Spirit helps us in our weakness, and that all of these sufferings, trials and hardships are working together for our good….BECA– USE…it is God’s will to conform us into the image of his son. My take on all of this…things happen TO us, so something can happen IN us. Period.

Today I want us to consider the choice to respond to Truth while in the middle of our pain, trials, sufferings and hardships. There is a reason that Jesus told us to look at the birds ( Matthew 6). The birds are carefree and Jesus taught us that we too could be carefree. How? How can we be carefree in a life filled with cares, sufferings, injustices, hardships and pain? By making a choice to fix our eyes on Jesus and find purpose in the middle of our pain, by allowing God to teach us the solidity of the truth of being conformed into His image.

Today’s Truth: Hebrews 12:2,5,7,10-12

“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith…do not make light of the the Lord’s discipline and do not lose heart when he rebukes us, because the LORD disciplines those he loves. Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as sons. God disciplines us for our good, that we may share in his holiness. No discipline seems pleasant at the time, bur painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it. Therefore strengthen your feeble arms and weak knees. Make level paths for your feet, so that the lame may not be disabled, but rather healed.”

Unpacking the Truth

• All of us have a path, a race, a route mapped out for us.
• We are to run it, live in it, with perseverance.
• Embrace the Lord’s discipline, because there is a purpose in the pain.
• The purpose is good, because the purpose is that we share in his holiness.
• In the moment, pain. Later on, peace.
• Considering truth, make a choice to make a level path for your feet as you run the race.
• Clear the path, making it level, by Focusing or Fixing your eyes and attention on Jesus and putting your trust in Him in the middle of your pain.
• This pain will produce righteousness in your life in practical ways.
• This pain will produce peace and will train you more for the life you were born to lead.
• This present pain is working to make you more like God’s son Jesus.

What is your pain today? Can you turn it around from being just a life circumstance that is horrible into a life event that God has allowed for your good and growth? If growth is the outcome can you begin to hope for something better than you currently have? Can you, once again, place yourself, your pain, and your circumstance into the hands of the God who calls you his daughter? Can you believe that this God who created you is not like an earthly father, but a father who always and only wants your good and growth, and is the beginning and ending of all things, knowing the bigger picture of your life, therefore working all things to fit into the bigger picture reality? Can you join me today in fixing our eyes on Jesus?

My friend had a necklace on yesterday that spoke to me. The front side said, “Choose Joy” and the back side said, ” Never look back”. I think that is what Hebrews is saying to us today. Choose joy because God is working and never look back because you can not run the race while looking behind you.

Run the race! It’s a choice to lace up those shoes and run. Can you make that choice today? Choose to Run, Choose to Endure, Choose Joy in God’s Bigger Plan!

Today’s Prayer

Father, we are weak and yes sometimes emotional feeble people. Change us. Give us the courage to fix our attention on the bigger picture, the greater good and on you. Jesus we want to be conformed into your image so give us the grace to endure whatever it is that is taking us there.