God Wants To Change You

Finally, then, brothers, we ask and urge you in the Lord Jesus, that as you received from us how you ought to live and to please God, just as you are doing, that you do so more and more.  For you know what instructions we gave you through the Lord Jesus.  For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you abstain from sexual immorality; that each one of you know how to control his own body in holiness and honor, not in the passion of lust like the Gentiles who do not know God; that no one transgress and wrong his brother in this matter, because the Lord is an avenger in all these things, as we told you beforehand and solemnly warned you. For God has not called us for impurity, but in holiness. Therefore whoever disregards this, disregards not man but God, who gives his Holy Spirit to you.

 

1 Thessalonians 4:1-8

 

 

Many Christians today treat their spiritual journey as if it's already done. "I've been to the cross and I'm going to heaven—what else is there?"

 

Well, there's a whole lot more.

 

God doesn't want to just save us, He wants to change us. This is the real work that God wants to do in us—it's the work that conversion was designed to initiate. The cross is just the beginning of the Christian life—the rest is called sanctification.

 

This is the process by which God takes sinful people and makes them holy.

 

Some key verses that mention this process are:

 

• "This is the will of God, your sanctification" (1 Thessalonians 4:1-3).

 

• "He is the source of your life in Christ Jesus, whom God made our wisdom and our righteousness and sanctification and redemption" (1 Corinthians 1:30).

 

• "If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come" (2 Corinthians 5:17).

 

If we choose to cooperate with God, we will understand how the things we see or experience are part of His plan to grow and shape us.

 

If you currently feel the weight of God's transforming influence, just remember He is in the process of changing you and that you will be all right.

 

These are exciting days for you.

 

Now is not the time to put your feet up… you've been to the cross and God has begun in you the most amazing process imaginable.

 

God doesn't want to just save you—He wants to change you!