Open yourself to transformation

Lord, I am open to transformation. 

Is this a prayer that we are willing to pray openly? It’s hard sometimes, thinking that after so long of allowing Him to form us, suddenly, our lives get turned upside-down. We start feeling a call on our life that is different than ever before … uncomfortable. 

So the true question I ask, is are we willing to give up the comfort of what we have come into knowing, in surrender to the new things He has in store for our lives. For once perhaps we walked in active healing, and now He calls us to walk out waiting upon Him. And once we were called to a season where we speak, but now we are called to be in a place to listen.

Once we warmed the pews, and now we warm a stage. For we serve a God who never changes, yet He is always changing us. Am I willing to be changed? Am I willing to seek Him, and listen when He tells me something I’ve never understood before? Am I willing to be the waiter instead of the doer?

I ask these questions because it can be easy to see a change of season as an upheaval of our lives, and it can be easy to lose trust when we no longer understand the assignment we have been given. But take heart, it’s because we have a new lesson to learn, so be willing to learn it. Where once you were raised, now you are humbled, where once you spoke boldly, now you learn to listen, where once you gave freely, now you learn to receive.

Truthfully, it’s the simple lessons we often fight so hard against, because we don’t know them. But it is in recognizing this scripture that we find peace, “And yet, O Lord, you are our Father. We are the clay, and you are the potter. We all are formed by your hand.” (‭‭Isaiah‬ ‭64‬:‭8‬ ‭NLT‬‬)

For clay is mailable, changeable, formable, it does not question when the sculptor transforms it from a statue into a bowl, but instead it submits to the working of those masterful hands, trusting that they know better. And the beauty of being His clay, is knowing that He will form you for the time, for the season, for the purpose that you are in today. Take heart that this testing has purpose, be faithful knowing that He is bringing you into a new now moment, in which His glory will be revealed; in, to, and through you, just allow Him now, to do the work that shakes your world until everything you once knew shatters, and everything He knows thrusts you into a fresh revelation of His purpose. 

Be blessed, and be ready for transformation.

Justin Gardner pastors at River of Life Fellowship, 702 Church St., Sandpoint. The church can be reached at 208-255-7111.