“Derek, how come you’ve stopped swearing?” a school friend asked. Derek hadn’t noticed the change, but two weeks earlier he’d visited the church youth group for the first time. At home afterwards, submitting his life to God as he gazed into the midsummer night sky, he said, “It felt like God had moved from the outskirts of the solar system and into my room.” From then on, the anger that had fuelled his swearing “went away for good” as God took residence in his life through the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit.
God changes us. The apostle Paul gave this message as he defended his ministry against the false teachers whom some followed in Corinth. Paul shared how God removes the veil over our eyes through Christ: “But whenever anyone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away” (2 Corinthians 3:16). Christ removes this veil of sin and separation from us, giving us wisdom and understanding, and freedom through the “Spirit of the Lord” (v. 17). With His transforming presence within, we are changed: “We all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image” ( v. 18).
The Sprit living within helps us to put away old habits, even as Derek stopped swearing. When we ask God to make us more like Him, He will help us through His indwelling Spirit. Through God, we hope, believe and change.
By Amy Boucher Pye
REFLECT & PRAY
How has God brought about change in you? What areas of your life could you bring to God for transformation?
Loving God, thank You for giving us Your indwelling Spirit, that we might see you more clearly, and become more like You.
SCRIPTURE INSIGHT
In 2 Corinthians 3, Paul refers to the experience of Moses to show the great privilege possessed by believers in Jesus. After Moses communed with God, “his face was radiant” (Exodus 34:29), reflecting God’s divine countenance. Because the people were afraid to come near him, Moses put a veil over his face, seemingly to protect the Israelites from God’s holiness. But when communing with God, Moses removed his veil (vv. 30-35).
Paul now reveals that Moses veiled himself so the Israelites wouldn’t see that this glory was temporary (2 Corinthians 3:13). The apostle then says that a veil is preventing people from “seeing” Christ, God’s greater glory. Only when one “turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away” (v. 16). “So all of us who have had that veil removed can see and reflect the glory of the Lord,” Paul explains, and we are transformed to be “more and more like [Jesus] as we are changed into his glorious image” (v. 18 NLT).
K. T. Sim
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