Love Story

February 2008

Early in my Christian life, I superimposed my own feelings of inferiority on Scripture when I read it. Didn’t the New Testament say, for example that “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come? “(2 Corinthians 5:17). Didn’t that mean that I should be all grown up and my “God makeover” complete?

I know now that Paul was not telling believers that they should experience a Hollywood-like transformation. He was telling them that they had been given a new godly nature and the potential to live out of it because of God’s empowering grace. The Living Bible translates 2 Corinthians 5:17 this way: “When someone becomes a Christian he becomes a brand new person inside. He is not the same any more. A new life has begun!” (italics mine)

Imagine that you are the tiny shoot from my giant Christmas cactus that I placed in a glass of water to root. Imagine that, after a couple of weeks, you sprouted filmy strands. Imagine that you were transplanted in a pot of soil. Over time you will put down even stronger roots; you’ll bud and blossom.

Pray Meditatively. That same process will be replicated in your life as you sit before God reflecting on a passage like 2 Corinthians 5:17. You may be just as fragile as that green stalk because of your wounds and tend to see Scripture as judgment instead of Life. Ask God to renew the way you think a day at a time—and He will.

Practice God’s love. That’s the reason He has changed you on the inside—because He loves you. Instead of downplaying His love, bask in it. Take advantage of the opportunities He gives to trust Him in new ways. Doing hard things by faith is one way to say “Thank you.”

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