Let God transform you into a new person by changing the
way you think.
—Romans 12:2a NLT
What does it mean to be changed, Lord? I want to change,
but so often I am not willing to surrender control. Sometimes I don’t even know
what binds me because I have denied the Holy Spirit complete access to my life.
I am in bondage unable to reach for freedom. I know the result of that bondage.
Anger. Hurt. Pain. Bitterness. What does it really mean to lay all of myself
down? To let go of all of myself? To want only you—your peace—your
joy? I long to allow you, Holy Spirit, to change my attitude—my outlook—the way
I think. I yearn to give you access to my deepest feeling, emotion, and those
deep places I have held back from you. What I try to hide can never be hidden.
What I try to change in my life in my own way and on my own strength can never
be changed. You transform me—when I allow it. I choose to change the way that I
think about anything that I face—to see each problem or person as a challenge
to refine my life and not as one to defeat it. You raise me up to walk above
life’s circumstances—when I allow it. You call me out into the depths of the
unknown to experience greater faith. You call me out so that I rely totally on
you because I have no strength of my own. You stretch me beyond myself. It may
seem my breaking point, but it proves to be what triggers greater faith. You
wait for that moment when I have released all that you know needs to be
released. You wait for that moment when my own way and my own strength proves
not to be enough. You wait with your perfect love for what I have feared in so
many ways—giving up all rights to myself.
Oh, Lord. I can’t strengthen. I can’t change. I can’t
fix. All I can be is yours. I let go. I breathe your promise. I breathe your
peace. It is in the release of all of myself that I melt into your presence. I
am clay just waiting to be molded. I cry out for your hand upon my life. I
yearn to be made new in the spirit of my mind. I am ready, Lord, for those deep
places which I have always held back to now belong totally to you. You own
them. You own me. I have nothing to prove. I have no point to make. I rest in
your grace that is sufficient. You hold me in your perfect peace because my
mind continually thinks upon you. I am never alone in each thing that I give
you. You are with me to strengthen and encourage. You take into yourself my
heart and mind, and you come, Holy Spirit. I know your Spirit living in me. You
give what I can never give myself—the greatest peace for which there is no
explanation—the greatest joy which no words describe. You give me all of you when
I let go.
—from Form Me, Fire Me, Fill Me
© 2017 Lynn Lacher
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