Jeremiah 51:15-17 "It is he who made the earth by his power, who established the world by his wisdom, and by his understanding stretched out the heavens. When he utters his voice there is a tumult of waters in the heavens, and he makes the mist rise from the ends of the earth. He makes lightning for the rain, and he brings forth the wind from his storehouses. Every man is stupid and without knowledge; every goldsmith is put to shame by his idols, for his images are false, and there is no breath in them."
Having the mind of God: we cannot comprehend his ways, and his understanding is so far beyond our own.
God has been dealing with me concerning areas of sin in my life. This process is painful but good. For the past few years, I've been very comfortable with my life. I thought that I was doing what God had called me to do, but in many ways, I think I was just busy. Busy doing good things but forgetting that I am a sinner in desperate need of a savior and that my sin so often stands between me and the God reaching down to me.
In the past couple of months, God has shaken me out of my complacency and demonstrated to me the depth of my sin and how much I am in need of Him. I cannot stand on my own. I cannot be angry at him that my life doesn't look how I think it should look. When I am anxious about my life or about my future, I realize that I have lost the mind of God concerning these matters. Anxiety is my spiritual thermometer that demonstrates to me how far I've strayed from God's heart. Because if I truly trusted Him, I would believe that everything that happens is part of His good purpose, and I would have no reason to worry about people or events that He, in his grace, maintains complete control over.
His grace is glorious and He has all rights to my life. In my surrender to Him, I trust that all things, both good and bad, work together according to His purpose. When I dislike something that happens, I often think I could just wave my magic wand and make it how I want it to be according to my perspective. Though it sounds great in theory, what dreadful power that would be for me to arrange the world as I want it. I do not know my own heart much less the best plan for the entire world. What I want for myself may not be what is best. And what is best may not be what I want.
But the Christian walk is about transformation. He is renewing my mind and my heart conforming me to the image of His son Jesus Christ. This transformation is not easy. Sometimes, I don't like it. I'm just being honest. But it is good. It is gloriously good!
In my sin in the past, I've vainly thought I could achieve my own transformation by the things that I do or don't do. If I could accomplish everything on my checklist, then somehow God would approve of me and that accomplishment was my spiritual transformation. How wrong I've been! Spiritual transformation is given me only by the grace of God. Unless he does the work, everything else is meaningless. So while my spiritual discipline may be beneficial and yes, God does use them and desire them for me, they are not the ends in themselves. Accomplishing these things does not mean that I've achieved transformation. It might show my willingness for God to use me, but the transformation is up to Him and Him alone. Ultimately, what I desire is what Gary Thomas states as "a heart that loves as God loves, that is satisfied in the things of God, and that revels in the glory of God. Here, more than anywhere else, is where we need God to be active."
The heart of God and the image of Christ. These are the things I seek. I can be satisfied in nothing less but knowing God and being known by Him. And it's not easy. A life transformed is not something I can wave my magic wand in order to attain. But as the Chris Rice song, oddly enough entitled "The Magic Wand," states, "The only way to really change is simple choices everyday, obey the Spirit-whisper in my soul. With the help of God, a little time can change a heart, renew a mind without a magic wand to work a miracle." A magic wand is the easy way, but there is no path of least resistance on the road to Christ transformation.
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