Do you conform?
A rather large woman went to an exercise and diet clinic. The first thing the supervisor did was to draw a silhouette on a mirror, in the shape she wished to become. As she stood in front of the mirror, she bulged out over the silhouette. The instructor told her “our goal is for you to be conformed to this shape.”
For many weeks the woman exercised and dieted. Each week she would stand in front of the mirror but her volume, while decreasing, still overflowed. So she continued to exercise and diet more rigidly. Finally, one happy day, she stood in front of the mirror and found she was CONFORMED to the image of the silhouette.
GOD has set a silhouette for His children. He has drawn the IMAGE OF CHRIST and seeks to fit us to that image.
Romans 8:29 tells us God’s purpose is for us “to be CONFORMED to the image of His Son”
In Ephesians 4:13 Paul makes it even more awesome. He says we are to become “a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ” or as the Amplified puts it “nothing less than the standard height of Christ’s own perfection”
Christlikeness: what a goal!
It is so easy to be conformed to this world, but it takes a lot of time and effort to be conformed to the image of God’s Son.
We need to ask ourselves daily if we are striving towards that goal and we SHOULD be seeing a gradual change as we read His Word, seek His will and follow His direction.
Is Christlikeness possible? Not in this lifetime, but we know that “When He appears we SHALL BE LIKE HIM for we shall see Him as He is” 1 John 3:2 and “I shall be satisfied when I awake with THY LIKENESS” Psalm 17:15
MEANWHILE we SHOULD be seeing a measure of CONSTANT GROWTH towards that goal – towards Christlikeness.
# If you have EVER been closer to the Lord than you are at this moment, you are a backslider.
# To be much like Christ, spend much time with Christ.
# So live that people who remember you will remember Jesus Christ.
MEETING IN THE CLOUDS 
Wonderful post! In our Christian walks with the Lord, we should strive to be more like Him each day! There should be constant growth in our spiritual lives! Otherwise, anything that displays no growth, is stagnant. When we find ourselves in various situations, we need to ask ourselves, what would Jesus do, or how would Jesus handle this? We find answers by referring back to God’s word.
Also, after reading your post, I thought about the experience that Jeremiah had, when the word which came to him from the LORD, saying, arise and go down to the potter’s house, and there will I cause you to hear my words. Jeremiah obeyed the Lord, and he beheld the potter at work on the wheel. The vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter: so he made it again another vessel, as seemed good to the potter to make it. Then the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah saying, O house of Israel cannot I do with you as this potter? saith the LORD? As the clay is in the potter’s hand, so are ye in mine hand, O house of Israel. (Excerpt from, Jeremiah 18:1-6) Today, we the Saints of God, are as the clay which was in the potter’s hand. As we strive to be like Jesus, He molds us and makes us. Sometimes we have to be made again, another vessel, because initially we are marred. However, as we continue to surrender our lives unto the LORD, and allow Him to make us and to mold us into vessels of honor, we will become conformed to His image. This transformation doesn’t take place overnight, but every once in a while we should look into our “spiritual mirrors”, to see if we are being more conformed to the image of God!
Thank you so much, for being a blessing unto me. To God be the glory!
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The potter and the clay is one of my many favourites. We know that God WILL continue His work in our lives, even if sometimes it requires drastic action, but it also remains our responsibility to spend time and energy on the task and to discipline ourselves.
As a parent I think of the years of willing work that went into bringing up our five sons to be outstanding citizens, husbands and fathers. We did our part, but they had to learn discipline too and to do their part.
I like to spend a little time each night thinking over the events of the day, considering how I could have done things better. There is no recrimination but a determination to reset priorities.
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Amen!!!
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