As I mentioned last week, my church has recently started a new series called “HGTV Life.” After watching a bit too much HGTV following a recent surgery, my minister is taking popular design programs and applying them to our lives. Last week, I shared with you our lesson, “Hidden Potential: Discovering Our Character Potential.” This week, we continued the series with “Renovation Realities.”
I haven’t actually seen “Renovation Realities,” but I understand the basic premise – naive homeowners taken on projects bigger than their abilities. No matter how simple we think a project is going to be, it always becomes much more complicated. And, whether you live in an old house, new house, apartment, shack or town home….all of our homes have internal issues. The same can be said of us as human beings…no matter how great we look on the outside, we all have issues. From my own personal experience, my internal issues seem to manifest themselves on the outside: dark circles, acne, weight gain…usually a result of unnecessary stress in my life.
Much like the design/construction heroes that save the individuals on the show…we’re fortunate enough to have our own design hero. God came up with a plan to renovate our lives from the inside out…Jesus. If we just accept his free gift of salvation, we get to trade our guilt for his grace…our failures for his forgiveness…and, our sins for his unfailing love.
Much like the design/construction heroes that save the individuals on the show…we’re fortunate enough to have our own design hero. God came up with a plan to renovate our lives from the inside out…Jesus. If we just accept his free gift of salvation, we get to trade our guilt for his grace…our failures for his forgiveness…and, our sins for his unfailing love.
Of course, once we accept that gift, we have to give up a previous version of ourselves. We have to give up the ways of the world and transform into the likeness of the model Jesus created for us. I think so many of us think that once we accept that Christ died for our sins, that we’ll experience a bit of magic. But this kinda of transformation is beyond the magical world of Harry Potter…and beyond the supernatural powers of the Vampire Diaries (sorry – I couldn’t help myself). This process doesn’t come naturally or easily for anyone.We are all in a process of renewal. Furthermore, it’s not something we do just once…we are continually renewing.
Philippians 1:6 says, “being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.”
The good news is that we’re all a work in progress…and there is comfort in knowing that God doesn’t ever leave a project unfinished. If we trust that he’ll get the job done, we won’t ever have to look for another renovation specialist. He’s working on us from the inside out.
If you’d like to hear the full message, click HERE. have a great Tuesday.
