PERSONAL STORY

Transformation ... Leaving the Pond

"PERSONAL STORY" pages are encouragement to help you realize you are not alone.  Others have traveled along the path; others have sought comfort from God Himself; others have found freedom.  So can you!  We invite you to let the experiences of others encourage you, and to begin to know, understand and feel Comfort directly from our Father in heaven.

When our children were very young, we caught some tadpoles in a nearby creek and put them into an aquarium.  Then I began to study the encyclopedia (this was before we all had PCs and Wikipedia) to see what we needed to do to keep them alive until they turned into frogs. 

It seemed that we needed to keep our aquarium water fairly shallow and put some stones in one end, allowing the tadpoles to climb out of the water once they began to transform from "fish" to frog.  Without gills, they would need to breathe oxygen from the air.

We watched for days and nothing happened.  Then one evening, about 7 PM, I noticed that one of the tadpoles had "lost its tail", or so I thought.  I began to watch closely and discovered, as another tadpole began to transform, that the tail did not come off but was reabsorbed into the body, making the body fuller.  Then I saw, along the sides of the tadpoles under a thin membrane, a little leg on each side of the body.  The tadpoles struggled to free their legs.  The minutes became hours as I sat entranced by what I was seeing.  Once the legs were free and had been exercised in the water a bit to become stronger, the little guys - not quite tadpoles and not quite frogs -  crawled up onto the rocks.

Since it was very late, I gave up watching and went to bed, exhausted from simply observing the miracle of transformation.  There was nothing I could do to help it or hurry it along.

When we got up the next morning, there were frogs in our aquarium, frogs that swam but needed to get out of the water to breathe, frogs that would require live flies to eat in place of the fish food they had eaten in the days before their transformation. 

Remembering the tadpole transformation got me to thinking about my own transformation.  Those tadpoles were created to be frogs.  They could not turn into dogs, giraffes or rabbits; they could only become frogs. 

The Bible tells us we are created in the image of God (Genesis 1).  We are not created to become God but to be perfected human beings He created us to be, reflecting His glory back to Him and out to the world.  He created us to be in harmony with Himself, with one another and with creation, to know peace and to know that we are loved and cared for.

The Bible tells us that "God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life."

But like the tadpoles, I am asked to play a part in being transformed and to no longer be this frightened, self-doubting, negative-believing, disaster-expecting person I have become because I live in an imperfect world and scary things have happened to me in my life.

I know how devastating life can be; my husband is now very ill with a disease that has no cure.  Each day we live with the powerful awareness of the fragility of life.  But, Jesus doesn't want me to be stuck in that place of paralyzing fear.  His desire for me is that I grow into the perfected person He created me to be, living life to the fullest right here and right now!

There are a few things God is asking me to do.  First, to believe in Jesus, but far more than that: to also trust in Him and live the new life He is offering to me!  I want the life Jesus spoke of when He said, in John's Gospel, "I have come that you may have life and have it to the fullest."

Next, like the tadpoles, I need to actually start living the new life He is giving me!  We read in 2 Corinthians, paraphrasing: "...if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new...".  Another powerful Scripture is found in Ephesians 4, paraphrasing: "You were taught, regarding your former way of life, to put off your old self...".

My old ways hold me in the slavery of insecurity, poor self-esteem, fear; all thought habits that harm my body and spirit.  The old self-talk of unworthiness needs to be replaced with all these wonderful promises that God is doing what He promises - making me into a new creation, giving me life, and life to the fullest!  My Father is holding me, His daughter, and Jesus is holding me, His sister!

I realize that the tadpoles had to free their legs and make them strong, they had to climb out of the old familiar environment and onto a rock, they had to begin to breathe air with their newly developed lungs, and they needed a new source of new food.  I, too, must work with the Holy Spirit in being transformed into all God has created me to be.  Our Rock that we can climb onto is Jesus, and the Holy Spirit will provide new breath for us, and He will change our diets from old harmful thoughts and habits to healthy, holy replacements!

They tadpoles didn't just decide to become frogs; they simply became what they were always intended to be!

In the Old testament's Book of Jeremiah, we read that God promised to write a "new covenant" into the hearts of His people.  Because of this promise and others like it, because I am made in God's image, and because of the work Jesus did during His ministry and still does today, I can now make these statements:

* I am a new creation.

* I will love the Lord, my God, with all my heart, soul, mind and strength.

* I will love my neighbor and myself,

* I will forgive my neighbor and myself, because we are taught that our sins are not only forgiven, but also forgotten.

* I am a precious Child belonging to, and loved deeply, by God

AND SO ARE YOU!  BELIEVE AND RECEIVE THIS PROMISE WITH JOY, LIVING LIFE TO HE FULLEST!


Courtesy of Rebecca Erickson


At the end of various readings in Comfort.Guide, we will have a "Pause", "Reflect" and "Receive" section.  The purpose of this exercise is to help you better understand and to personally absorb the encouragement Comfort.Guide offers.  If you would like, visit the "HOW TO USE" page for a review of "Pause, Reflect and Receive".


PAUSE … Invite Him to be with you; let Him quiet you with His Love.


REFLECT… What is God saying to you?  Are you content being a tadpole?  How is your own journey on the way to being a frog?  What does it mean that He wants you to experience "life to the fullest"?  What do the words "new creation" mean to you?  What might your life look like being a new creation, living life to the fullest? 
  

RECEIVE … You are meant to read and know all of God's promises, understand them, believe that they apply personally to you, and let them begin to transform your life.  Ready?


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PROMISES ..... short Scriptures to build you up and give you hope!

"May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit."   (Romans 15, NIV)

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