To truly know and love someone well, we have to be willing to learn, ask questions, make mistakes, and keep trying. It takes work, but working hard to know someone we love is ALWAYS worth the effort. 

Relationships transform us. Whether we realize it or not, they shape how we think, live, and act. 

This is true of good relationships as well as bad ones. We are constantly being formed. The question is, what are we being formed into? 

God is relational, and He wants to know us and be known by us. The amazing thing about a relationship with God is that He already perfectly knows us inside and out, even our major flaws, and yet He loves us anyway. A relationship with Him can transform us in ways that aren’t possible for us to do on our own. 

This is why Be Transformed is one of our four values here at Gateway. 

You aren’t fully who you want to be yet, are you? I know I am not! We know that we need transformation in different areas of our lives, but week after week, year after year, we find ourselves still stuck in the same habits and patterns of relating. 

If you want to become more of who God says you are, then being in relationship with Him is required for that to happen. So the question is, do you want to become more of who you were made to be? 

This kind of transformation won’t happen (and stick) if you try to put your head down and figure it out yourself. Yes, transformation requires work, but work happens in relationships. 

When we are in Relationship with Jesus so much becomes possible.

2 Corinthians 5:17 says this: Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: the old has gone, the new is here! 

Do you know that when you put your faith in Jesus, He makes you new? The new you that is possible through Jesus enables a few key factors that lead to transformation: 

1. We receive the Holy Spirit. The scriptures tell us that his spirit takes up residence with us and never leaves. So, now we have God’s presence!
2. The Spirit leads us with truth, giving us the ability to discern what is good. You don’t have to figure this out alone anymore.
3. We become sons and daughters of God. Your upbringing might have been beautiful, or it might have been really hard; in either case, you were deeply impacted by your parents or guardians. When we choose Jesus we get proximity with God and adopted into his family. So, we get to be shaped by a perfectly loving Father. 

When we spend time with God, it marks us, and we are transformed – into looking like Him! 

This is God’s design – He has made each one of us His image in the world. We see that on page 1 of the Bible (Genesis 1:27 So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.)

But that perfect image has been distorted through hardships, rebellion, and pain. God’s desire is to restore us to Himself so that we might rightly be his image in the world. 

And who is this God that we can be restored to look like? He is perfect love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. He is Strength aimed at uplifting. He is power under control. 

If I’m being formed into something, I’d like to look like that, Look more like our loving God. What about you?

How can you step into this transformation? Well, the answer circles us back to where we started. It’s in community with God and others. 

I want to invite you to Be Transformed this year. Don’t move through this month disconnected. Join a Group, step into a serve team! Get off the Bench and into community! Let God transform you this semester as you spend time with Him by yourself and in community!