Transformed

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come. 
II Corinthians 5:17

Do you remember what your life looked like before you became a follower of Jesus? I have many memories of who I was. I acknowledged that I wanted to follow God at the age of 5. I don't have tales like some who walked without God their entire life. But I do have memories of times when I lived out of His will and lived according to my own desires.

I think back to the time when we first got married, out of college. We went to church but were Sunday believers. At work, I just wanted to fit it in, to be like everyone else. All my childhood I was known as the "goody two shoes", the pastor's daughter. I lived under a microscope, while constanstly being watched to see if I would stumble and tarnish my parent's good name in some way. It was the best feeling just sitting in the back row, no one even knowing our name. While some of the volumes of Scripture that I had memorized through my childhood lingered in the back of my mind, I was trying to figure out if I really believed all that it had to say, or if it was good for my parents and not necessarily for me.

I asked God to forgive my sins and come into my heart many times over the years. When I went to church activities and camps, I often wanted to make sure that it was for real, that I truly was a follower. My life didn't radically change though until I started having kids. All of a sudden it occured to me that I would have someone watching my every word and deed and now I would be responsible for molding and shaping the life of someone else. Every word that came out of my mouth would some day be repeated. My habits and perceptions of others would form the fabric of how my child would see life.

In essence, I finally understood the importance and the need to give all of my life to Christ, to put away my old life and become a new creation. No longer was I going to church because I had to, or out of religious duty, now I was going to church to be a part of others, to serve, to worship the one who created me.

Everything about me was changing. I started listening to different music. I became convicted about what tv shows I watched. The movies that I watched began to have less language, less violence, less everything. It wasn't that I was following a list of the do's and don'ts that my parents had reiterated again and again. I just didn't have the desire to do what I once did. My greatest desire now became to please God. I once lived a life of fear, living in shame for all the ways I had dishonored God and for all of what I had done. After confessing to Him, it was in the past. Hebrews 8:12 says, "For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more". He doesn't hold the past over our heads. Once we ask Him to forgive us, it is gone forever. We are the ones that keep bringing it up, always looking back.

The best word picture I compare myself to is a butterfly. A caterpillar is kind of dull and spiky looking. For awhile, it stays in a very dark place. While he is in the cocoon, he is slowly growing. When He emerges he is completely different, he is a new creature. Actually, he isn't stuck moving at such a slow pace now, now he has the freedom to fly.

It takes a lot of time and work at times on our part to grow. It takes discipline to attend bible studies and do the homework. It takes self discipline to study the Word. It takes effort at times to go to church or a fellowship with other believers when you don't feel like it. At times, all of these things are easy to do, we want to go, we want to learn, we want to be with others. And then, there are others, life seems a little more dry, and yet, doing these things helps us to become more like Him. In order to grow, to become like new, we need the help of Jesus to continue the work that He started in us, but we also must do our part and seek Him.

When we read the Bible and we just do what it says, life becomes so much more simple. By following Him, there is more freedom, freedom to be who He created us to be. People have said to me more than once, "You seem so different then when I knew you back then." Transformation occurs when we seek to follow Jesus, we just can't help but become different.

Are you the same as you have always been? Do people see a difference in who you are, what you say and how you act since you met Him?