More Than a Bruise
Why can a moving sermon leave us unchanged a few days later? Thoughts on repentance and the place of God’s presence and Word in daily life.
Tags: Challenge, Change, Impact, Repentance, Transformation
“That message really hit me!”
We hear that a lot after a powerful service. Maybe the message was bold, eloquent, or painfully accurate. Sometimes a sermon strikes us so deeply that it pushes us toward decisions we never would have made on our own. It gives us a spiritual shove, Sunday after Sunday, nudging our lives in the right direction.
But impact has its limits.
Years ago, when conferences on music, youth, missions, and prophecy were everywhere, I had a friend I jokingly called “the events girl,” because she never missed one. Even though she found them moving and inspiring, her life and ministry were not growing as she had hoped. Her experience made me question how much lasting change followed the excitement of those events.
Impact is like the bruise that appears after a hard hit: it proves something happened, but eventually it fades. The change we need has to last beyond that first reaction and reach the way we live.
Three things have the power to move us beyond impact.
True repentance. Repentance means turning away from selfish desires and seeking God. In his reflection on admitting mistakes, Max Lucado connects repentance with acknowledging that we are wrong. That sorrow needs to become a desire to change, with inner conviction turning into outward action. Repentance also means learning one of the hardest lessons for anyone fighting sin, bondage, or habit: to hate what God hates (Psalm 119:104; Proverbs 8:13; Acts 3:19; Revelation 2:6, NIV).
The presence of God. Before we ask for God’s power, we need to welcome His presence into daily life. How can we ask Him on Sunday to help us, lead us, and answer us if we spent all week living as though He were far away?
The Word of God. The Word convicts, sanctifies, frees, heals, and gives life. It speaks even to dry bones. It steadies us so that we are “no longer infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching” (Ephesians 4:14, NIV).
Let’s not settle for services, events, impacts, and bruises. It is time to be transformed into who God has called us to be. Real metamorphosis means leaving behind the cocoon that once held us when we were only caterpillars. God’s hand has already done its work in us. Now it is time to open our wings and let the whole world see the difference.