A Prayer for Change
Three Steps Forward, Two Steps Back.
That’s the title of a Charles Swindoll paperback I read in the 1980s.
That’s a realistic depiction of spiritual formation. At best, it is a zigzagging line on a graph, showing highs and lows. Over time, though, the line charting the progress should reveal a higher plateau when compared to the starting point at our conversion. Back to the analogy of the book title, even with setbacks, we should be one step ahead of where we were.
One catalyst for change is prayer, which acknowledges the need for the Holy Spirit to shape us more into the image of Christ (Rom. 8:29). Growth isn’t merely a human endeavor. Like a blacksmith reshaping or creating an object with fire and hammer, change may require painful blows. But staying the same may hurt more.
Here’s one of my pleas for transformation, put in poetic form over a decade ago. My poem recognizes that the catalysts for growth are sometimes painful. As Robertson McQuilkin put it, adversity can be a means of God’s grace.
Don’t Let Me Stay the Same
Please do not let me stay the same.
I’ll bring more glory to Your name
if transformation is the norm.
Chisel away until You form
in me the image of Your Son,
and I’m no longer on the run
from Your Spirit, who pursues me
so He can revive and use me.
I want no way of pain ignored,
so truthfully, I’ll call you “Lord.”
Please judge the contents of my mind.
Turn up the heat so it’s refined,
and rebel thoughts that once held sway
are clamped in chains and led away.
Throughout my heart beam Spirit’s light
until impurities take flight;
until my sin produces tears
and vision blocked by Satan clears.
Your pruning work will hurt, I know,
but You must cut for fruit to grow.
Replace anxiety with peace.
Remove my restlessness. Increase
my confidence that You control
my circumstances, that Your goal
in all that happens is my joy.
Whatever means that You employ
to change me will be worth the price:
investment, not a sacrifice.
When I’m at home upon my knees,
You’ll be the One I yearn to please.
Keep breaking me until I’m tame;
Just do not let me stay the same.
I am not yet who I want to be, but thanks to God’s grace, I’m not who I once was, either.
Dare you make this poem your own prayer?
Needed that. Thank you
Thank you, Mike for your note.
Always, thank you Terry.
Thanks, Terri what an encourager you are–ought to change your name to “Barnabas,” which means “Son of Encouragement.” You’re a daughter of encouragement! Terry