Principles to Remember in Crisis: God desires for you to become like Christ

In today’s post we continue on Principles to Remember in Crisis. Today’s principle: God desires for you to become like Christ.

Recently in the first post of this series, we revealed that the Apostle Paul provided two vital steps to persevere in trials or crisis. The first step, in a world with false teachers, false belief systems, and false hope, the Apostle reminds us to stand firm in what we know. The second step is to hold fast the traditions which we have been taught or learned from the Word. We simply identified those steps as: (1) Remember key principles and (2) Obey practical steps to encourage our perseverance.

This is our seventh principle to remember.

God desires for you to become like Christ (Romans 8:28-29).

Paul declares that every circumstance, including any kind of crisis, has at its purpose to make you more like Christ. Notice how he describes it from the Book of Romans:

And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose. For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover whom He predestined, these He also called; whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified. (Romans 8:28-30)

As believers, God orchestrates the events of our lives in perfect fashion to enable us through the circumstance to become more like Christ. Paul proclaims that all things work together for the good of those who love God. He then provides the good — to be conformed to the image of His Son. We always know the divine motivation of any crisis — to become like Christ.

I have listened as Dr. Bob Smith has sat with a hurting family and essentially ask this question, “Why do you think a good God, Who does everything for His glory and your good, would allow this circumstance in your life?”

His goal in the question was to get the family to focus on God’s goal in this particular tough circumstance.

Paul makes this clear in the text. Consider two elements with me for a moment. First, God is using this circumstance in your life – the one you are in right now – no matter if you would consider it good or bad. No matter what the details of the circumstances are, God providentially uses these, as you go through them, inside His beneficial plan. All things work together for good.

Second, God’s good in your present circumstance and in every circumstance is to conform you in the image of His Son. In other words, God’s goal in your current circumstance is to help you become like Jesus Christ. Often, since this verse is true in every circumstance, I explain to people that God’s purpose for man is to become like Jesus Christ.

One critical note for your understanding…

Just one note for you to remember as you think of your own personal circumstances and as you help others consider theirs: never, ever, ever postpone God’s good purposes for today. Sometimes people say, “We know, maybe one day, God will use this for His good.” For instance, I remember hearing a pastor as he talked with a teenage girl and her family, after the girl had been sinned against sexually by her date. He essentially used this verse in this way, “The Bible says that God will use everything for good in the life of a believer. You never know how God will use this. You may be able to open up a home for young teenage girls in the future who have been molested or sinned against in other ways.” As this pastor described it, he was wrong. The pastor may be right in that God may use this young teenager some day to minister to others; and if God does, that is great. However, this verse does not teach what he overtly implied.

What is the pastor’s implicit assumption in his statement? ASSUMPTION: There isn’t a good plan today. There isn’t a good purpose today.

However, his assumption is absolutely wrong. God providentially allowed even this circumstance in His plan so that she and everyone involved can grow in Christ today. If there is future ministry opportunities down the road, those are icing on the cake. But the cake is the fact that God wants us to grow today in this moment through this circumstance. Don’t postpone the hope that is in this passage in your own mind or in the mind of someone else.

We don’t want to think or say, “It will be interesting to see how God works this for His good.” or “We wonder how God is going to see that good comes out of this?” No, the good is to become like Jesus Christ. To do so minimizes the powerful truth in this passage. “Maybe someday, somehow, God will hopefully make this good.” No, God is at work today, right now, in the midst of this circumstance, to help everyone involved become more like Jesus Christ.

Questions you can ponder today…

So we ask in the midst of our situations, “Where are the places in my life right now in the midst of this situation where God desires me to be more like Christ?”

What do you hope for, the things you desire, the things you love, the things you hate…are they like Jesus Christ?

At the outer man level, what do you do, what do you say, where do you go…is that like Jesus Christ?

In every situation, we want to tease out of this context what Christlikeness look like in this moment.

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