Transformation

SCRIPTURE: Prov. 7-9; Rom. 9

Romans 9:31-33
How can we sum this up? All those people who didn’t seem interested in what God was doing actually embraced what God was doing as he straightened out their lives. And Israel, who seemed so interested in reading and talking about what God was doing, missed it. How could they miss it? Because instead of trusting God, they took over. They were absorbed in what they themselves were doing. They were so absorbed in their “God projects” that they didn’t notice God right in front of them, like a huge rock in the middle of the road. And so they stumbled into him and went sprawling. Isaiah (again!) gives us the metaphor for pulling this together:

   Careful! I’ve put a huge stone on the road to Mount Zion,
      a stone you can’t get around.
   But the stone is me! If you’re looking for me,
      you’ll find me on the way, not in the way.

OBSERVATIONS: It is through our transformation that we discover God, who is the one bringing on the transformation!! And when we read and study in an effort to create a God project, we miss God and see instead only our own “wisdom” and “scholarship.”

APPLICATION: Joey, be changed in your time with me, or you are wasting your time. Come before me pliant and ready to embrace who you are becoming, because I’ve called you to a new life.

PRAYER: Melt me, mold me. Bend me, change me. Use me. Through Christ, I ask it. Amen.