Transformation-change
Scripture Reading — 2 Corinthians 3:12-18
We … are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory …
2 Corinthians 3:18
Human beings, it seems, have always been afraid of change. When Sir Francis Drake learned about the potato in Peru and brought it back to Scotland, people refused to grow potatoes because they aren’t mentioned in the Bible. When street lamps were introduced in Boston, local ministers preached against them: “If God had intended this, he would have made the sun brighter and the moon more brilliant.” The use of painkillers was also opposed by clergy who argued that bodies were created by God and should not be interfered with by chemicals.
Change is inevitable, and while some changes are bad, many of them are good. Not all change represents progress, but without change there can be no progress.
Change is often unpleasant because it means surrendering what is familiar and leaving behind what we once valued. We often prefer to live by man-made rules that we think are constant and unchangeable. But God wants us to be controlled by his wind, the Holy Spirit. God’s Spirit living within us has the power to change us from one degree of glory to the next.
Why not open yourself to the wind of the Holy Spirit? Which way is the wind of God blowing you? What is God asking you to change in your life?
Only when you and I change will we become God’s change agents in this world.
God, our Father, we frequently resist change because we want to be comfortable. Give us the mind of Christ so that we can choose Spirit-inspired change. Amen.
About the author — Dean Deppe
Dean Deppe has been a pastor in inner-city, suburban, and rural churches. Currently he teaches New Testament theology at Calvin Theological Seminary. His courses include one on the parables of Jesus. He and his wife have four grown children.
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