Conform to His Image

August 13

There’s an old saying, ‘You can’t teach an old dog new tricks.’ That sums up our attitude about changing. We tend to identify ourselves in a certain way and, for the most part, are satisfied with who we are. We enjoy our relationships with people, value our accomplishments and admire our personalities.

For we have invested ourselves in our relationships, worked hard to achieve our successes and carefully crafted our personalities to express our inner self to the world as we wish it to know us. We are ‘self-made’ men in many ways beyond professionally and financially.

Our contentment with who we are endures unchallenged—even by the ups and downs of life—until we come to know Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior. When we are introduced to Him, and when He has begun to shine the candle of His Holy Spirit into our hearts, we no longer like what we see, for we see ourselves as He sees us.

When our eyes are opened and we behold ourselves by God’s standard rather than our own, we become discouraged until we realize that He has programmed us for change! II Corinthians 5:17 says, “Anyone in Christ is a new creature! Old things are passed away; all things become new!” We have a fresh start with Jesus and as we conform to His image, we can be content with who we are.