HOPE & LIGHT

What do I love most about myself?  I love the truth that I am a new creation in Christ, that God is working in my life changing me into the image of His Son. Because He lives in my heart, I am a different person.

In the natural, I am a very moody person – just ask my husband what I was like when we first got married forty-two years ago. But after many years of walking with Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior, I am not nearly as moody. I’m being transformed into the image of Christ, and He is not moody.

In the natural, I’m a worrier. But as a growing Christian, I’ve learned that worry doesn’t change my tomorrows, it only empties today of the strength I need to walk wisely. I’m being transformed into the image of my Savior in this area also.

In the natural, I am a person who focuses on my circumstances. But after my years of walking with Jesus, I’ve learned that focusing on my circumstances only makes me depressed. If I turn my eyes upward onto my Lord, I can walk through any difficult situation and be at peace. In this area too, I’m being transformed into the image of Christ.

In the natural, I’m a person who always asks why. Why is this happening to me? Why hasn’t our special-needs son been healed? Why did You heal my husband’s back, but I still live with back pain daily? But I’ve learned that God usually answers such questions with, “Trust Me.” And I’m learning to do that. Again, I’m being transformed into the image of Jesus, who always walked in trust and obedience to the will of the heavenly Father.

These are just a few areas where I’ve seen God working in my life during the last forty-four years, since I accepted Jesus as my Lord and Savior. I definitely haven’t arrived – I still have more growing to do in each of these areas and in others as well. But as John Newton, the writer of the Christian hymn Amazing Grace, said:

I am not what I ought to be,
I am not what I want to be,
I am not what I hope to be in another world,
But still I am not what I used to be,
And by the grace of God,
I am what I am.

John Newton spent much of his life as a slave trader. But after he came to know Jesus Christ as his Savior, he was a different person. He said that the beloved hymn Amazing Grace was the story of his life. It is also the story of my life. As a churched person, I believed in Jesus, but I had not surrendered my life to Him. When I made Jesus my Lord and Savior, God by His grace began the life-long process of changing me, of transforming me into the image of the Son of God.