Transformers!

Transformers happens to be one of my favorite cartoons/ movies of all time.  I grew up watching them.  To this day I find my self daydreaming about how a specific car would "transform". I know this is silly but God gave me a wild imagination.  I love the idea as well.  Hero's in disguise.  During the day they blend into our world looking like all the others but they are not.  They are different.  They are special. They are Heros.

I have been talking to God a lot this week about being a new creation.  His word tells me that all things become new, the old is dead and gone.. Once we believe in/commit to Jesus and His Lordship we are new creations (Mark 8:34; 2 Corinthians 5:17).  We now have His Spirit living and breathing inside us!! Magnificent! If you looked at me 4 years ago this verse is 100% true.  I am DIFFERENT! Thank you Lord.  So why have I been going to God lately questioning it.  Well, I am a new creation, I know this, the Bible tells me so; however, my past is everywhere.  It seems quite a bit of people remember the "old" me very well.  And these stories make there way public.  This hurts me.  First I find it shameful. My past is nothing I want to remember.  I was talking to a friend the other night about this and she states when her past gets brought up she wants to hide.  She wants to physically clothe herself because she feels dirty.  I can relate completely to this.  I too want to hide.  My past was sin.  I was famous in my role as the "wild child" and "party girl" because for years that was my identity.  When I first cried out to God it was on my living room floor asking Him to "kill" the old me.  I hated who I had become.  But I didn't know how to be anyone else. God is faithful and that weekend I went to a church for the first time in 15 years and the sermon was how to bury the "old" us!! Wow! God spoke directly to me after I had walked away for so long! I recommitted my life to him and have not looked back.  And 4 years later I am truly a new creation.  

While I was in prayer the other day about this "transformation" concept with God He showed me two very important things.  First, He said look at the butterfly.  Every one knows it was once a caterpillar but that doesn’t change what it is today.  It will never go back to being a caterpillar, not after seeing how beautiful God had intended it to be. It is beautiful and free!  That's me!! I am beautiful because I am the way God intended me to be.  It doesnt matter that the world remembers the caterpiller me, it doesnt change what I am today.  In fact, me being that caterpillar made me into the butterfly.

The second thing at Bible study this week, still thinking about why the world seems to always bring up my past, God showed me His Truth.  I was thinking that since we are new creations it would be nice if God would give me a new body.  A new look. I truly wanted my past self to be dead.  I wanted all past ties severed. I never wanted to be remembered as the caterpillar. “But the Lord said to Samuel ‘Do not look at his appearance or at the height of his stature because I have rejected him; For God sees not as man sees, for man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord  looks at the heart!’" (1 Samuel 16:7).  Again, could He have been any clearer to me?  God did change my look!!! He sees my heart! He promised me to remove my heart of stone and give me a heart of flesh (Ezekiel 36:26)!! And He did! When He looks at me He sees me as pure! Praise God! 

So God did transform me completely.  I once was a caterpillar, now a beautiful butterfly.  He once saw me with a heart of stone, now with a heart of flesh that longs to serve, worship, and honor Him!  That leaves me with a mission! I have to again not be ashamed of my old self but tell the world what is responsible for my change. The reason why I am not that way anymore. I am to stay in this world for now, looking like the others but truly not being of this world.  I am called to pray for the lost, love them as God loves them, and serve the way Jesus served us.  Christians need to be "Hero's in disguise!" 

Father,

Every time I call on You, You are so faithful to answer. I don’t understand it but praise You for it.  Thank You God.  Thank You that You made me beautiful.  That You transformed me! Thank You Lord for not just rescuing me from eternal damnation but for molding me.  Until the day I leave this world to be with You eternally, God help me to tell the world about Your transformation.  Help me God to show the world You through the way I love, serve, and pray.  Thank you Jesus for setting the example for me to follow.  I praise You every day and every moment.  

Love Always,

Your Butterfly