IMAGE IMPROVEMENT

To put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness. Ephesians 4:22-24

A lady I know is going through the painful process of losing weight. It is painful because her body is learning to adapt to a better style of eating. She has actually had some nausea and headaches while her body adjusts.

Another young lady is going through the painful process of straightening her teeth. Every few weeks she has to place a new molding onto her teeth. As it slowly moves her teeth to the corrected position, pain is involved.

Developing a better spiritual image, one that exemplifies Christ, is also a painful process. Each day we make decisions go against our human nature. We sometimes desire the appeal of doing something morally wrong, and we hesitate doing the task the Holy Spirit asks of us. Spiritual image improvements require a chipping away of flaws and molding us into Christ’s likeness.

When we belong to Christ, we will not always go along with the popular masses because in Him we are a new creation, dead to our sins and alive in Christ. His nature is pure and holy so now when we sin, we go against the very nature of God in us. We can either suffer the taunting remarks of others when we make good moral decisions, or we can go along with the crowd and suffer the Holy Spirit scolding us with a guilty conscience. We realize that being chided by a person only lasts a moment, but the Holy Spirit will make us feel uncomfortable until we confess and repent. Choosing right is way less painful than choosing wrong.

As we walk in this human life, we must remember that our former life of corruption has been changed by the blood of Jesus. We no longer belong to ourselves but belong to Him. We must daily allow Him to give us His makeover, an image improvement by letting Him renew the spirit of our minds to look more like Him each day. It hurts a little, but it is well worth the process.

Dear Father, Thank you for making me to be more of the image of Christ each day. Amen.