From the Inside Out

About a year and a half ago I was visiting my parents and my mom sent me home with cuttings from her rather large plant that resided in their living room.  The cuttings weren’t anything to celebrate about; they were just a couple of large green sticks stuck in dirt.  There was not one leaf in sight.

I couldn’t help but wonder if these sticks would ever turn into anything worthwhile.  It seemed so impossible.  Sticks sitting in dirt don’t usually sprout leaves and turn into a plant. 

With a hope and a prayer, I set the pot by a sunny window and faithfully watered it each week.  I began to wonder if my mom had given me this as a joke because nothing seemed to be happening. Then one morning I looked at the sticks and wondered if that “bump” had been there before.  I noticed another bump on one of the other sticks and in just a few short weeks they began to sprout big beautiful leaves!

I was truly amazed and even now I find myself gazing at that plant in awe at its transformation!

Romans 12:2 (NLT) says, “Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God TRANSFORM you into a new person by changing the way you think.  Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.”

Aren’t we are just like that plant?  A stick in a pot with only a promise, WAITING for God to do His transforming work in our life.   In the midst of the waiting we often find ourselves struggling with habitual sin, wishing we were someone else, hating the place where God has us and craving the transformation NOW.

We don’t want to have to WAIT but change takes time – it doesn’t happen overnight.

What I didn’t realize as I watched my sticks for weeks on end was that there was change going on, it was only on the inside and I just couldn’t see it. 

How true this is for us!  When we surrender to God’s way and live in obedience he begins to change us from the inside out.  He changes the way we think and believe and that alteration gradually changes who we are and what we will become.

Someday, we will no longer be dead looking sticks in a pot but a flourishing, glorious plant that brings glory and honor to the One who rescued us and called us His own.

Isaiah 61:3b (NLT) says, "In their righteousness, they will be like great oaks that the Lord has planted for his own glory."

Do you feel like a dead stick in a pot, wondering if you will ever be a glorious plant?  Are you struggling to see God’s transformation in your life?  

Be patient my friend, if you are truly surrendering to His work in your life He IS changing you from the inside out.