Step 4 - Becoming More Like Christ
Step 4 – Becoming More Like Christ
Have you ever thought about there being STEPS to becoming more like Christ? Not steps - like this is precisely what you need to do next – but steps - like moving forward and taking a step closer to your Savior. Christianity is not a one and done type proposition. If we accepted Jesus as our Savior and nothing changed, then something is wrong. Also, if we accepted Him, changed a little and stopped growing or taking steps closer to Him – then again something has gone awry. Our love for Jesus should propel us to obey His word and therefore take steps closer to Him.
Throughout the Bible, God tells us to “be holy, for I am holy”. We have a long way to go – but that is where our steps should be leading us. There are many more than 5 steps and we will need to continue to take steps over and over and over again if we are to ever resemble the likeness of Christ. But what we should not do is be like children, immature in our faith, because the Bible says that we will be “tossed to and fro”. Children are gullible, vulnerable and easily victimized. We are to grow up, mature in our faith, become more like Jesus. Maybe think of it like this – as a new believer we are a babe in Christ, but our goal is to be like crucified Jesus – fully surrendered and obedient to God even to the point of death. Um yep, we have a long way to go.
We have talked about growing in our knowledge of Christ, opening our heart to let that knowledge cultivate our love for Him, and developing intimacy with Christ. All of these are so important if we are to grow to become more like Him. Let’s talk about another element – step – that God’s word tells us is important.
Step 4:
Recognize His greatness. As we come to know Jesus more, we see how good He is, how big He is and we realize that nothing compares – not even our hardest struggles. This is when we open up to Him increasing in our lives and decreasing our self-centered ways.
We lose site of reality. We view the world through our personal, limited reality, and it forms our perspective. We think our love for our children is great. We think our accomplishments, our needs and our fears are great. When in reality, God is the definition of greatness and everything else pales in comparison to Him.
Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised; And His greatness is unsearchable. Psalm 145:3
When we think of people, we use the word great to mean “preeminent, above normal, or highly distinguished.” It also implies that they have superior character. When the Bible describes God as “great,” it sets Him apart from human beings and calls attention to His worthiness to be worshiped and adored. (Read Psalm 145 in it’s entirety.) God lavishes His great love on us, shows great patience to us and has proven how great His faithfulness is. So, how do we exalt Him to His proper place in our life, recognize His greatness and trust Him with everything in our life? It begins with worship.
Right now, you may be struggling because it has been a while since we experienced true worship. Maybe you are hoping to gather at church soon so you can get your worship on. But, did you know you can worship God in your kitchen with just you and Him present. My favorite way to worship is to turn on worship music, get on my knees, bow my head and praise God for who He is. It starts with recognizing – or maybe remembering is a better word – that He is the Creator of the Universe, He spoke the world into motion, breathed breath in our lungs, loved us so much He made a way for us to have a relationship with Him, every good and perfect gift in our life is from Him, that He loves us, is with us, is in control, will fulfill all of His promises to us, is trustworthy even when we simply do not understand, and so on and so on. Worship helps us to realize just how BIG He is and how small our needs and fears really are.
Worshiping God helps us to open our heart to Him and exchange what we want with what He has for us. Submitting our life to Christ requires worship, obedience and transformation. It is our path to walk down to become more like Christ. It is like John the Baptist said in John 3:30-31…
He must increase, but I must decrease. He who comes from above is above all; he who is of the earth is earthly and speaks of the earth. He who comes from heaven is above all.
Today is a good day to pause and consider who He is. Recognize His greatness, see how good He is, how big He is and realize that nothing compares. Invite Jesus to increase in our lives, so our self-centered ways will decrease. Tell Him that we want nothing more than to surrender our all and take steps to becoming more and more like Him.
Let’s invite others to walk this path along with us.
A Note from Pam:
Hi sweet friend. Thank you for traveling this journey with me. I love that we encourage one another to focus on the things that matter most.
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