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Thoughts on Today’s Verse…
“Transformed … with ever-increasing glory.” In other words, it’s an ongoing process. The beauty of this truth is that with the continual help of the Holy Spirit, we’re going to arrive at our goal — the Spirit is transforming us to become more and more like Jesus! The message is that we must not give up on our journey. We must keep looking to Jesus and reflecting his character, his compassion, his love, and his holiness, while we trust that the Holy Spirit is doing God’s work in us, making us more and more like Jesus each day.
My Prayer…
Father, please forgive me for the times when I’ve let my faith grow complacent, and I’ve lost my focus on Jesus. Please bless me as I try to be more intentional in my plans, especially my spiritual maturity. Please make me more like Jesus each day. I offer myself to you that I might become more JESUShaped. In his name, I pray. Amen.
Bible References
18 And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate[a] the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.
The mercy of the Lord is so great. Once the Lord said: “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.” (Romans 9:15). And by His mercy the Lord have given us the privilege the ministry of the Spirit. The veil in the people of Israel was never removed from their life, they didn’t received Jesus the Messiah when He came to earth, they were under the ministry of the Law, a ministry of death (2 Corinthians 3:7).
But the Lord had showed His mercy to us, the Gentiles, all of us who had received Jesus as Lord and Savior of our lives, and this by the Spirit of God, who brought us to Jesus, and now we are under the ministry of the Spirit, a ministry of life. Paul says: “…because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death.” (Romans 8:2)
It is the Holy Spirit who reveals the word of God, He is our help from heaven. For that reason it is very important to have a very close relationship with the Holy Spirit and walk our spiritual journey with Him, (take his hand and walk with Him), He leads us to a life of freedom. The previous verse to Today’s Word says:”Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.” For it is only in freedom that we can be like Jesus, while there is something in our life that is not from the Lord, we cannot be like Jesus. This is a process of sanctification, and it is a glorious process.
Why a glorious process? Because under trials, storms and battles, our life is brought to a closer relationship with the Lord by the Holy Spirit, and we can see what is wrong in our life, what is not pleasing God in our life, what is weak and need to be strengthened in us. By the same mercy of God, we take out those things from the flesh, like doubt, fear, lies, bad feelings, envy, (we can name them) and take in what is from the Spirit, all His fruits and attributes of God, and the character of Jesus is formed in our lives.
Our likeness to Jesus is formed in our heart, for it is our heart what become like Jesus’s heart, JESUShaped, and from the abundance of our heart, our mouth speaks (Luke 6:45). Our mouth will speak in love, with love, by love, with mercy, in mercy, by mercy, with patience, in patience, by patience, in faith, with faith, by faith, with kindness, in kindness, by kindness, and on and on. Then, in doing so, we are transformed in the glory of God, and others will see the glory of God in us and will glorify Jesus. When we are like Jesus, His authority is in us, we can say to our storms and to other’s Be still! To the sick body Be healed! To the captives: Be free! To the lost : Be saved! To evil spirits: Go! And all in Jesus’s name! And all of these for Jesus is the center of it all! Hallelujah! Praise the Lord!