FOREKNOWLEDGE AND TRANSFORMATION
A lot of times we’re afraid of transformation because we like to have knowledge of what’s on the other side. We hear testimonies, and we want to know if that’s going to work for us. We are so conditioned to foreknowledge.
I think about USPS informed delivery. How many of us have that? Every day at 9am, I pop open my email and I know what I’m getting in my mail that day. I like to know what’s going on. But we as a society have grown very accustomed to needing to know something before it happens. That’s why it’s so difficult for somebody in recovery, to make that step because they don’t know what it feels like to even be transformed. They hear about it, but they don’t quite know what it feels like.
I don’t want to make light of anyone’s struggle. When you quit using a drug that is hurting you, your life, your family, I understand that there are steps down that people use to step down in their addictions. God made our bodies to function without all of that, but it can feel so foreign to live without it that we attach ourselves to something else. This can delay the transformation because we’re actually looking to something else to help us through that moment.
In Romans 12:2 it says, “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, pleasingand perfect will.” If we go back to the beginning of that scripture, it says that we have a responsibility – To not conform to the pattern of this world. But God is the one that’s changing the way we think. God is the one that’s doing the transformation. The only way we can really fight it is if we don’t just give up our Will and follow Him. So if we’re still copying the behaviors and customs of this world, it makes that transformation a whole lot harder and we don’t enjoy it as much.
We’ve been given tools to help us, one of those being the form of grace. Titus 2:11-12 says, “For the grace of God has appeared that offer salvation to all people.” So remember, the grace of God teaches us to say “no” to ungodliness and worldly passions and to live self controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age. So is it God’s grace that transforms me? Or is it my saying “no” to worldly passions and ungodly stuff and to live an upright life? What is it that catapults the transformation? It’s both! He still gives us responsibility to make it better and to make it easier, but He’s the one that transforms us. We can’t do all the right things, and that’s not what transformation is. Many times, we do better things because we’re being transformed in our minds and in our hearts because of God.