"Better"

I’m better than I used to be,

And friend, that’s just a fact,

No doubt it is the grace of God,

That helped me from way back.

And, no, not all that I should be,

I still have far to go,

To be more like my Savior,

But I want you to know,

The Good Lord has forgiven me,

For every single fail,

I don’t take that for granted,

It’s not some fairy tale.

But the hard reality,

Of change as He sees fit,

And I choose to cooperate,

Keep moving on, that’s it.

The fine line where I want to be,

Is happy, safe and free,

All the while still listening,

For more change, don’t you see.

‘Cause holy, holy, holy,

Is the Lord of hosts above,

And He can make us holy, too,

Transformed by His great love.

And not the kind of holy,

That’s proud or prone to judge,

Finding fault with others,

And complaints that will not budge.

‘Cause that religious pompousness,

And “holier-than-thou,”

We should never mix that up,

But we have sometimes, somehow.

The holiness of which I speak,

Is really just one thing,

It behaves like Jesus,

Who will His Spirit bring,

And by the presence of the Spirit,

He brings the needed change,

More and more like Jesus,

A godly rearrange.

So, Lord, let us be sanctified,

By the power of this change,

And in the end you’ll take us home,

To ride on heaven’s range.

“But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit.” (2 Corinthians 3:18, NAS)

We are being transformed from glory to glory by the Holy Spirit. We look to the Lord, He shows us ourselves, and the change we need to make. If we cooperate we get better and better. If we stall out along the way our growth is slowed down until we are willing to change again. Early in my Christian life I felt like I’d take a step forward and then two steps back. There was also a great deal of guilt and shame regarding my mistakes and inconsistencies. But God was faithful, then and now. The process continues that began many years ago. The most relentless consistency of the spiritual life is that He keeps on changing us.

Lord, help us continue to change, in Jesus’ name.

Art by Don Weller, used by permission. Thanks, Don, and God bless you.