A Recipe for Transformation

A hermit said, ‘We do not make progress because we do not realize how much we can do. We lose interest in the work we have begun, and we want to be good without even trying.’

Transformation has three ingredients, two of which are provided by you: time and effort. If you want to become a new person in Christ, you have to put in the work, and it’ll take a while. Thankfully, the third ingredient—the one we don’t have to provide—is the power of God’s Holy Spirit. Over time, the Spirit of God can use the efforts we make to bring about incredible change in our lives. That’s how I understand Paul’s words in Philippians chapter 2:

… work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who is at work in you, enabling you both to will and to work for his good pleasure. (2:12-13)

You and I need to do the work of leaving our old ways behind, but, at the same time, the Lord is at work in us, through the Spirit, enabling us to become new people, people who desire the things God desires and pursue the things God pursues.

But that hermit out in the desert named two challenges: “We lose interest in the work we have begun, and we want to be good without even trying.” In other words, we lose interest and give up on the work we’ve begun too soon—we don’t give the Spirit time to cook—and we don’t try: we look for shortcuts, for transformation minus the effort.

I imagine that, many times, we give up too soon because we get discouraged. We aren’t seeing the results we want yet, so we throw in the towel. I heard author Jon Acuff share in an interview recently about someone who told him they weren’t losing the weight the wanted and were giving up on an exercise regimen. When he asked how long it took them to gain the weight and how long they tried the exercise, they said that they gained the weight over ten years and tried the exercise for ten days. Acuff was dumbfounded. “You gave the problem a decade to develop and the solution ten days??” Some of the bad habits and sinful attitudes we want to jettison took twenty or thirty years to develop. Forging new habits and new attitudes will take time. Don’t give up.

I also imagine that, often, we don’t want to try because we think that reading the Bible, praying, and going to church are all you need to be a growing disciple. But following Jesus is like anything you want to get good at: it takes practice. Patience, kindness, gentleness, self-control, and the other fruit of the Spirit grow when we put in the work tilling the ground, sowing the seed, and watering the seedlings. Keeping your cool, for instance, is a virtue you develop incrementally, as you intentionally work on not losing your temper with that person, or in this situation. You can’t be good without trying.

And, on the flip side, if you want to make progress, you need to realize how much you can do. Your efforts make a difference. You hold in your hand the key to starting that new life. It might take it a while to crank up, but if you do your part, you’ll be amazed what the Holy Spirit can do with that.

Don’t give up. Don’t look for shortcuts. If you commit to this work, you’ll see just how much you, and God working in you, can do.

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