Change Me

"Lord, change me."

Those can be tough words to say. They can be down right frightening, can't they?

"Lord, change me."

Hard stuff.

Because here's what I know. When you ask God to change you.. you'd better be prepared to change. Your heart better be fully yielded to make the serious changes necessary for God to mold and shape you into the person He created you to be.

I was having my quiet time the other morning as I regularly do, and something hit me. Like a ton of bricks really. (You know - God's only doing what I've asked Him to do. I'm not really smart, so I've asked Him to sort of HIT ME OVER THE HEAD when He wants to get my attention about something.)

I was actually in the middle of praying when these words came out and I HAD to stop and write them down in my journal. (BTW - if you don't have a prayer journal - you really ought to get one! You never know when God's going to speak to you and you need to be prepared to write it down.) :) I felt like God was telling me this...

It's one thing to say - "Lord, change me, mold me." But it's a whole 'nother thing to allow Him access into your life to make the necessary changes. His desire is to change us to look more like the Father, but we have to have the willingness to be used by Him to change our character. Our behavior has to change. Are you willing to yield to Him and then DO the hard work?

You know - I've never enjoyed gardening. Never. I wish I did. I love flowers and I truly admire the beautiful landscapes of so many of my dear friends' yards, but I am certainly unskilled in this area of my life. I'm envious of those with a green thumb. When God was creating me - He just didn't gift me with a skill for tending gardens. And listen folks - I'm no good with indoor plants either. Don't ever ask me to plant sit for you while you're on vacation. Don't do it - I will kill them. I either under water or over water and I've been told that both will destroy your beloved greenery. I"m just saying - I DON'T have the knack for it.

Don't get me wrong - I'd love to have those beautiful yards you see on HGTV. I ooh and ahh at them, but I'll be honest with you... it's just more work than I'm willing to invest in. I have other things to do. (Like stay inside and watch HGTV apparently.)

I have good intentions. Around about Mother's Day I make the trek to the nursery to pick out flowers for my pots. I LOVE the nursery's in the spring. Fresh, beautiful flowers... Daffodils, Tulips, Crocus. Oh, oh - and Gerbera Daisies are my favorite. (See - I KNOW the names of them even though I can't keep the darn things alive.) I love them all. And every spring I have good INTENTIONS on taking care of them and seeing them past June 21, it just never turns out for me.

But it dawned on me during my quiet time yesterday that it's because gardening is hard work. It requires patience, time, devotion. It requires getting out in the hot sun and getting your HANDS DIRTY.

I suppose we all have those "sayings" we tend to over-use on our children. Like, "I brought you into this world and I can take you out!" (Oh - okay... maybe I'm the only one who says that.) One of my favorite ones I use on Chloe all the time is, "Anything worth it is worth working hard for." And I've got to admit - yesterday I had to remind MYSELF about this one. It was as if God, Himself, was reminding me that anything worth it (even changing me) is worth working HARD FOR.

Ouch!

If you and I are serious about God using us to make a difference for Him and we are truly committed to making the changes necessary in order to look more like our Savior, then we have to willing to do the hard work.

We have to be committed to a daily quiet time.
We have to be committed to daily prayer time.
We have to be yielded to God's divine interruptions.
We have to love others the way that God loves us.
We have to forgive those who've hurt us.
We have to be a cheerful giver.
We have to serve others.
We have to love those who are unlovely.
We have to know we're loved and seek God's approval, not man's.
We have to be grateful for what we've been given and find JOY in that!
We have to have patience.
We have to respect and our spouses.
We have to honor our parents.
We have to learn to follow Him with complete obedience.
We have to submit to authority.
We have to relinquish our pride.
We have to die to self.

Some tough stuff. Maybe even painful. But worth it. A lifetime following Christ is always worth it.

Listen... Jesus knew what kind of person you and I were going to be and He knew every silly thing we were going to do before we did it... and He went to the cross anyway. Hard work? You bet!

Ezekiel 36:26 says, "And I will give you a new heart, and I will put a new spirit in you. I will take out your stony, stubborn heart and give you a tender, responsive heart."

We have to be willing to do the hard stuff. If we want a beautiful garden, we have to be willing to get our hands dirty.

Finding JOY in the JOurneY,