30 Mar My Desire to Become Like Christ
For a long time, I depended on my feelings to define my relationship with God. I desired a more intimate relationship with God but the obstacles, mindsets, struggles and my weaknesses kept telling me I’ll never be who God truly wants me to be. While I struggled with my “feelings”, the devil gained access to my mind and continuously fed me with his lies. My thoughts were filled with how my weaknesses and struggles would take away God’s love for me and because I did not want God to stop loving me, I focused on trying to fix my weaknesses rather than focus on God. This didn’t make me feel any better because I was frustrated and angry at myself for having my weaknesses. I was so eager to be perfect like Christ was while He was on earth but what I had not realized was that becoming like Christ meant I had to act, think and FEEL like Christ.
When I eventually came into this truth, I realized that the devil would never stop trying to blind us from seeing who we truly are in the eyes of God. I was so focused on my feelings and my strength to fix myself and this gave the devil free access to my mind. What we should know is we should never be dependent on our feelings because God has provided us with EVERYTHING we need to be who He wants us to be. God knows us with our weaknesses and even loved while we were still sinner. He is the One to do the fixing and not us. That’s why He said:
“My power works best in weakness.” – 2 Corinthians 12:9
If God’s power truly works best in our weaknesses, this means trying to fix our weaknesses ourselves is impossible and in the process, we’ll be trying to take away His glory. We need to rely on God’s grace to strengthen us in our weakened state and also emulate Paul who said;
“So now I am glad to boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ can work through me”
Weaknesses, however, are not the bad choices we deliberately make or the sinful acts we commit behind closed doors. We cannot indulge in acts contrary to the Word of God and then label them as weaknesses and in the end, talk about the abundance of God’s grace. If we study 2 Corinthians 12 v 1-10, we would see clearly that the weaknesses Paul was referring to are circumstances or experiences that try to question who we are in Christ. It could be that one time you told a lie when you could have said the truth or that time you got angry and raised your voice when you could have walked away. When we’re faced with situations like these or life’s temptations in general, we must depend on the Holy Spirit and not our human strength to help us make Christ like choices and also to overcome these temptations.
I have always thought asking God to help me become like Christ meant an automatic transformation into Christ. It doesn’t work that way. Becoming like Christ is a process of growth and we have to make the decision to want to grow and also be committed to the process. If we base our spiritual journey on our feelings, we’ll never see what God is truly doing on the inside of us. What’s more important in our journey is who we’re becoming in the process. God desires for us to grow and attain spiritual maturity but we must know that spiritual maturity is not only measured by the amount of biblical information and doctrines we know but by allowing what we know transform conduct and character.
The devil will always try to stop us from becoming like Christ but the more we desire to be like Christ, the more of God’s grace we draw to ourselves. I have come to understand that the extent to which we live by the principles of the devil is the extent to which he has a hold over us. The moment we stop living for the devil and start living for Christ, he will flee but this doesn’t mean he won’t keep coming back, looking for loopholes in our lives so he can swoop in. Let’s learn to keep our Focus on Christ and not on our feelings, worries, emotions, fears and whatever is holding us back from becoming who we truly are in Christ. There are so many scriptures in the Bible that has helped me understand just how much we need to keep our focus on God and I love these two;
Jeremiah 29:13
“If you look for me WHOLEHEARTEDLY, you will find me”
AND
Isaiah 26:3
“You will keep in perfect peace all who trust in you, all whose thoughts are FIXED on you!”
Feeding on God’s word daily arms us for whatever life on earth throws at us. Remember, God has provided ALL we need to be who He has designed us to be and so we must not give the devil access to make us feel less of who we are. Nothing can take away our Father’s love from us.
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