Conform? Or Deform?

10:16 PMHeather

One of my favorite TV shows is Biggest Loser.  I love seeing the transformation of the contestants.  I mean, sure the physical transformation is amazing, but it is the mental and emotional transformation that really intrigues me.  And, I am always curious when contestants have a hard time seeing themselves as they are now.  Their self-image is so deformed by how they WERE.  And, I realized today that I am JUST like them!

Our life group is currently going through some curriculum from Lifeway, and I can't quit thinking about how the author describes our struggle as believers.  He says that Christ wants to CONFORM us to his image, while the enemy wants to DEFORM us from Christ's image.

I just love that play on words and how it paints a picture of our struggle to live for Him.  Romans 12:1-2 says:

1 Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, 
in view of God’s mercy,
to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, 
holy and pleasing to God—
this is your true and proper worship.  
2 Do not conform to the pattern of this world, 
but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. 
Then you will be able to test 
and approve what God’s will is—
his good, pleasing and perfect will. 

This is one of my favorite verses to summarize our role in the ongoing process of sanctification--to use a big churchy word.  Our job is to be careful to not conform to this world--to guard ourselves against the influence of this world.  And as we take out the worldly influence, we are to continually renew our mind by soaking it in the Word and through prayer.  THEN, God is able to transform us. 

But it is the influence of this world is the rub.  John 10:10 says that the thief comes to steal, kill and destroy.  He is in the business of DEFORMING us.  And, once we are covered by Christ's blood, if satan can't deform us, all he really has to do is convince us we are still deformed. He warps our soul-image so that we see only the ugly of before--and we can't begin to embrace the transformation of becoming a new creation.   Much less the ongoing transformation that happens as we continually become more conformed to Him.

INTENTIONAL challenge:  What about you?  Am I the only one who struggles with seeing only my failures and shortcomings--all those deformities?   Am I the only one who looks at myself and wrestles to embrace the FREEDOM and progress from past strongholds?  It's as though I have to squint my eyes and think really hard in order to see all the ways that Christ has been conforming me--all the baby steps in transformation.  Won't you join me in asking the Lord to give us His eyes so that we see what He's doing in us?  And, while we're at it--let's ask Him to give us eyes to see the deceit about our deformities--to see it for what it really is.  That is--what is no longer.

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