Becoming More Like Jesus: Stop Trying, Start Trainingنموونە

Yesterday, we kicked off a new reading plan where, together, we are looking at four ways that the Holy Spirit is calling us to stop trying and start training as we seek to be transformed more and more into the image of Christ.

Today, we will consider the first of these four ways: the movement from relying on our willpower to dependency on the Holy Spirit's power.

In his book, The Life You Have Always Wanted, author John Ortberg beautifully illustrates the role of the Holy Spirit in our lives as we seek to become more like Jesus. He writes, "Consider the difference between piloting a motorboat or a sailboat. We can run a motorboat all by ourselves. We can fill the tank and start the engine. We are in control. But a sailboat is a different story. We can hoist the sails and steer the rudder, but we are utterly dependent on the wind. The wind does the work. If the wind doesn't blow - and sometimes it doesn't - we sit still in the water, no matter how frantic we act. Our task is to do whatever enables us to catch the wind."

Ortberg's words remind me of Jesus' message to Nicodemus during a late-night conversation recorded in the Gospel of John. Jesus said to Nicodemus, "The wind blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit." (See John 3:8 NRSV)

Practically speaking, what does this mean for you and me as we seek to become more like Jesus day-to-day?

I think it means starting every day on our knees in a posture of surrender before God. In this place, we submit to Him our desires, our relationships, our work, and every area of our lives. In this place, we admit our frailty, our weakness, and our inability to save ourselves. And we sit still, waiting for the Holy Spirit to move.

From this place of surrender, we release the outcome of our lives into God's hands. God is in charge of the multiplication of His kingdom, not us. We cannot engineer our own spiritual formation.

Our role is to submit. His role is to transform. We receive His blessing. He gets the glory.

With that said, is there something you have been striving to achieve on your own strength, only to continue to keep falling flat? Is there something you have been holding onto so tightly that you need to let go and let God multiply it however He sees fit? And is there an area of blessing in your life that you have been absorbing the glory for yourself and need to start reflecting God's glory back onto Him?