4 Encouraging Truths About Spiritual Transformation
We opened the curtains to white flakes on kelly green grass, and the kids squealed like they’d never seen snow. I sat for a while and watched it flutter down like a gentle foreshadowing of what’s to come. The seasonal shift felt like a nudge to assess my goals, priorities, and the spiritual transformation that feels so slow in coming in my life.
The changing seasons are an ongoing reminder to try to make certain that my walk with God and my walk with the people I love are where they ought to be.
I used to think a time would come when I’d sense that I’d arrived at some sort of long-awaited destination in my relationship with God.
There have been noteworthy moments, but for the most part, I find myself considering that I’m not yet where I want to be.
Spiritual Transformation and Time
My late teens and early twenties were mostly just a scramble to keep myself afloat.
My mid to late twenties were sparked with radical enthusiasm and devotion.
My thirties find me settling into a pace that mostly looks like faithfully fulfilling whatever is set before me, a scarcity of spiritual mountaintop moments, and long stretches of spiritual steadiness.
Watching the first snow of the season, I decide to extend grace to myself.
I decide that it’s okay that I’m not yet where I want to be, and I remind myself that none of us will “arrive” until we stand before the throne of God at the end of our earthly lives. I consider the reality that there’s no room to judge anyone else’s journey, and this means I don’t need to judge my journey either.
My journey has been imperfect, and my life remains imperfect.
I mess up almost as often as I get it right.
I miss opportunities to extend kindness to others.
At times, I search for patience, and it’s nowhere to be found.
I question whether or not I’m making the impact I hoped to make when I set out on the journey.
In light of all these things, it’s okay that I’m not where I want to be, and here’s why:
Four Truths About Spiritual Formation
1. We can trust God to finish what he starts in our lives.
I can trust that the Maker who knit me together in my mother’s womb won’t quit on me.
He’ll finish what he started.
He’ll bring the work of my life to completion (Philippians 1:6). Spiritual transformation takes time, but the promise is that he will finish it. When I feel frustrated in the assessment of my life, I cling to what is true instead of clinging to what I feel.
2. Grace and knowledge don’t just show up; instead, they grow.
2 Peter 3:18 reads, “Grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord . . .”
Every person is somewhere on a journey that leads either toward God or away from him.
Until we see God face to face, none of us have arrived at a perfected state or a perfected relationship with him. What’s most important in our spiritual transformation is that we’re continuing to grow closer and not inching ever so slowly away from him.
What’s most important in our spiritual transformation is that we’re continuing to grow closer and not inching ever so slowly away from him. #spiritualformation #faith #deepfaith Click To Tweet3. Spiritual transformation requires endurance, which leads to maturity.
According to James, trials lead to endurance, and endurance leads to a kind of maturity that leaves a person complete, lacking nothing (James 1:2-4).
For this reason, we keep pressing through our imperfect lives and our imperfect relationships, and we trust that all of our trials will lead us to greater maturity.
We remind ourselves that difficult times are always God’s invitations to grow. Most of the deepest transformation happens in the wilderness.
4. God loves us exactly as we are.
God’s love for imperfect people was proven once and for all at the cross (Romans 5:8).
He loves me right now, at this step of my journey, just as much as he loved me in my wayward early twenties and just as much as he’ll love me on the day I enter my eightieth faithful year of walking with him.
He loves each of us where we’re at, and he’s bringing us to completion. We’re simply called to keep pressing toward him.
We run through the morning snowfall together, and the kids catch flakes on their tongues and spread their arms wide in a display of awe-struck freedom. They’re wild with life and joy, and I suppose I could learn a few things from their childlike enthusiasm.
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