Transformed

At one time, I was an enemy of God. My back was turned on him, and I was headed in a different direction. I wanted to be the one in charge of my life and refused to acknowledge God’s authority. I wasn’t an atheist. I believed that God existed, but he was distant, and I was content to keep it that way.

We can get settled in this life of ours. We describe our activities with words of permanence. We get married and “settle down.” We become “established” in our careers. We “build” a house. We acquire stuff—some cool stuff—that we appreciate and enjoy…sometimes a little too much.

John the Baptist made his days count. He lived life “plain and simple”–camel hair clothes and a leather belt; roasted locusts (surely, he didn’t eat them raw) and wild honey to eat. But what impresses me most is that John the Baptist was a man who knew his purpose. He was on earth to prepare the world for Jesus, and he never wavered. He lived with a spiritual focus. Isn’t that the kind of life you want to live?

Light and darkness are not opposing forces. Dark is simply the absence of light. When light enters, darkness is dispelled. There was a time when we lived in spiritual darkness. That’s all we knew. It was natural and normal. Then we met the Light of the world. He dispelled the spiritual darkness that saturated our hearts. Jesus “called [us] out of darkness into his marvelous light” (1 Peter 2:9-10). Paul says we are “children of the light, children of the day” (1 Thessalonians 5:4-5). Jesus says it this way.

If you want to look ahead, you must look back. I am not talking about living in the past. That’s foolish and fruitless. I am talking about learning from the past in order to embrace the future with confidence. How has God met your needs? How has God worked in the past? How has God delivered when you were up against a wall? In the first part of today’s passage, Asaph recorded his desperate pleas in the night. He was alone and afraid. He felt God had forgotten him. Then he collected his thoughts and focused on God’s past work.

Welcome to Promises in the Psalms—a devotional series purposed to glean the great promises of God from Israel’s book of worship. In this collection of prayers, songs, laments, and crying out to God, we will find rich promises to form the foundation of our journey. Let’s begin with the first psalm to ascertain where the believer’s delight is found.

Peter’s list of vices is a repulsive reminder of our lives apart from Christ. The sins noted above were not occasional places we visited. We were “living in” them. These offenses characterized our lives and defined who we were. But now things are different. We spent enough time in the past living like pagans chasing after human desires. Now it’s time to follow hard after Christ.

Let’s face it. We really are what we think about and desire. Our minds are the GPS that leads us to our “treasure,” and our hearts are the engine that carries us to our “prize.” Our minds determine the direction; our hearts provide the drive. That’s why the passage today is so important.

Jesus said, “You will recognize them by their fruits” (Matt. 7:16). By the fruit of a person’s life, you will know what is in their heart. A heart transformed by Christ produces the fruit of his Spirit.