God's Transformation Isn't Overnight

January 24, 2025

Have you ever participated in a get-rich-quick scheme? How do those usually turn out? What about a loose-weight-fast crash diet? We live in a culture that glorifies instant gratification.

But, when God helps you grow spiritually, he doesn’t just snap his fingers so that it happens instantly. When God wants to make a mushroom, he takes six hours, but when he wants to make an oak tree, he takes 60 years.

Do you want to be a mushroom or an oak tree?

The Holy Spirit will make changes in your life far beyond anything you thought possible, but it’s not going to happen overnight.

You are a work in progress. We all are.

Your spiritual transformation in developing the character of Jesus will take the rest of your life, and even then it won’t be completed here on Earth. It will only be finished when you get to Heaven or when Jesus returns.

"And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ." (Philippians 1:6)

This is how we become more like Jesus: “Put on your new nature, created to be like God—truly righteous and holy” (Ephesians 4:24 NLT).

We throw off the old things and the old ways that keep us from getting to know Christ and becoming like him. And we put on our new selves with the help of the Holy Spirit. We do this daily.

Every day, we make the choice to put off our old ways and choose to live God’s Way (with the help of the Holy Spirit).

We let God do his work in us—no matter how long it takes. The result? “As the Spirit of the Lord works within us, we become more and more like him” (2 Corinthians 3:18 TLB).