God's renovation

When we begin to allow God to come close to us...into our lives....certain things begin to happen. We may not be too comfortable to begin with. A friend who is a fairly new Christian and considering water baptism was surprised that the study book she was recommended seemed restrictive....'you mean as Christians we can't do so many things? After all, I just read the horoscopes for fun. I don't take it seriously.' At the beginning of the spiritual life, it may seem like many rules and regulations to abide by. True enough, a learner in any discipline ranging from mathematics to driving a car has to go through a stage of knowing the rules of the discipline and following them, though a little awkwardly at times. I think by this means God helps us renounce all the blatant inconsistencies of a life with Christ; obvious sins that even our culture would abhor.

But the renovation work continues. Next might come areas of sinfulness that our culture might accept as fairly 'normal' but that are certainly not acceptable in God's eyes, for example bribery to escape a traffic summons or premarital sex between a couple who are preparing to get married. The Holy Spirit, our counselor would certainly guide us when we become still enough and allow him into the deeper layers of our lives.

But God does not leave his good work in us incomplete. The renovation continues into the inner rooms of our lives. As we draw nearer to God, his searchlight will bring to consciousness certain sins of omission, or even unconscious attitudes that will hinder our growth towards Christlikeness. Obvious sins no longer trouble us. But we may begin to see how we are driven in subtle ways by our ego, or how we subtly manipulate others to get our way and how often our thoughts, feelings and actions are not in line. For example, we may seem to do the right things but we discover a judgmental attitude in the background that makes us incapable of truly loving others. In this case, our righteousness has subtly become self-righteousness. The great spiritual men and women have termed this self the 'false self', a construct of our own that we present to the world and even to God, in order to maintain a sense of security. However, as long as these inner patterns are in place, there is less room for God to work. So, like a good workman, the Lord continues to renovate our lives, if we but allow him to. It will be painful at times. But if we trust ourselves into the hands of God, 'working our our salvation with fear and trembling', we can trust that the good work will be brought to completion.

On our part, regularly practicing the prayer of self-examination (including confession and accountability to others) will enable us to cooperate with God's renovation work.

(As I shared with the friend of mine, we have to understand God's reasons behind the 'rules'. If we do, and understand that it is because he loves us, then they are not 'rules' that spoil our fun but wise ways of living that will please our loving Father)