Becoming Like Jesus: Part 3 — A ‘Time With God’ Audio Devotion

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And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters.

Romans 8:28-29

Transcript

Good morning. I’m John North, and I’m here to help you get your day started right as we take some time with God together. Time is precious to us, isn’t it?

We start our day with a big list of things on our mind that have to be accomplished, that have to be done or relational issues on our mind. Our time is valuable to us, and we show God that He is the most important relationship in our lives when we give him time each day, I encourage you to spend time with God this morning beyond even this time we have with Him together. Maybe just make this the launching pad for your own personal time with God.

We’re looking this week at the idea of becoming more like Jesus Christ, and I want to read from Paul’s letter to the Colossians today, chapter 1, starting in verse 9.

Paul says:

For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you. We continually ask God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all the wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives, so that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience, and giving joyful thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of his holy people in the kingdom of light.

Beautiful, isn’t it? Paul’s prayer that you may walk in a manner worthy of the Lord to please Him in all respects, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God.

Well, the fact is, in being conformed to Christ’s likeness, obviously we’re not conformed to His physical likeness. We don’t know exactly what Jesus looked like, but there are so many different Christians with different facial features, we aren’t going to look like Him physically.

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And we can’t become like him in the fact that he was the savior of the world, that he is God, a member of the Trinity.

No, how can we become like him in our character?

If we follow Jesus and are obedient to God the Father like Jesus was, then we will be like Christ and we will find the kind of spiritual fruitfulness that marked Jesus’ life, beginning to mark our lives, we’ll find the character of Jesus flowing through us.

We’ll be forgiving. Will be kind, we’ll exhibit self-control. Joy will flow from us. These things won’t happen by our own effort.

I’m sure you’ve tried many times to pull up your socks and be a better person.

No, it doesn’t work that way, does it?

But it happens as a result of your close relationship with the Lord. His life flows through you when you are close to Him, as someone has said, in order to gain self-control, give God control. That’s right. Put God at the center of your life. Make all your decisions on the basis of what would be pleasing to God in this situation.

You’ll find him then working his character in you.

I’m John North.

To go deeper in your faith, visit AFCI.com.au.

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