Have you ever taken the time to look back and reflect on the last five or ten years of your life? What did you think? How much have you changed? Are you happy with who you have become?

You are always changing

You are not the same today as you were yesterday. That is a strange thought; however, it’s true.

Think about this for a moment: you have a childhood friend that moves away. You run into them a few years later, and they seem like an entirely different person.

What happened? They changed, and that’s normal.

We are always changing. Whatever you experience in life today and the choices that you make will shape the type of person you are tomorrow.

Whatever you experience in life today and the choices that you make will shape the type of person you are tomorrow.

Who you are today is not who you will end up as, and as human beings, we must live with the end in mind.

That is why we cannot be passive when it comes to the future. A mindset that says, “whatever will be will be” is not optional. We must be intentional about the person we want to become.

The future you

It can be easy to look at the future with rose-colored glasses. After all, everything is better in the future.

You have a deeper relationship with God in the future. You are a better spouse in the future. You’re a better parent in the future. And that can be true!

However, these things do not just happen. There are decisions that undergird their success.

You are constantly changing, but how you change, and the person you are becoming is a choice; either for good or for bad.

Are your decisions pushing you towards what you want out of life, or are they pushing you away?

The you, you were meant to be

At the end of your life, will you be the person you were meant to be?

The answer: it depends.

You are constantly changing, but how you change, and the person you are becoming is a choice; either for good or for bad.

Are you a Christian? Do you have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ? Because the only way you can know who you are, who you are supposed to be, and what you are put on this earth for, is through Christ.

How do you become the person you are meant to be?

Scripture tells us that if we want to become the person we are meant to be – who God says is the “real you.” You must become like Christ.

Becoming like Jesus

That’s a tall order to fill. However, the mark of a Christian is our desire to fill it. We want to be more like our creator and our savior, and the more we are with Him, the more like Him we become.

God has “predestined [His people] to be conformed to the image of his Son.” (Romans 8:29)

“We are being transformed into [Christ’s] likeness.” (2 Corinthians 3:18)

Jerry Bridges’, in his book, The Discipline of Grace writes:

You know you are becoming the person you should be if every day you look more like Jesus than the day before.

Both words, transformed and conformed, have a common root, form, meaning a pattern or a mold. “Being transformed” refers to the process; conformed refers to the finished product. Jesus is our pattern or mold. We are being transformed so that we will eventually be conformed to the likeness of Jesus. Sanctification or holiness (the words are somewhat interchangeable), then, is conformity to the likeness of Jesus Christ.

 

How can we know we are being transformed into the likeness of Christ?

Bridges’ writes:

One of my favorite descriptions of Christ is that He “loved righteousness and hated wickedness” (Hebrews 1:9). Jesus did not just act righteously, He loved righteousness. In His humanity He loved equity, fairness, justice, and upright dealings with others. At the same time He hated wickedness. Jesus hated sin as sin. We often hate the consequences of sin (even if it seems to be no more than guilt feelings that follow sin) but I suspect we seldom hate sin as sin.

The mark of our becoming more like Jesus is that we look more like Him and less like the world around us. This is why James writes: “faith without deeds is dead.” (James 2:26)

It’s the idea that if you have put your faith in Christ, and are therefore becoming like Christ, your actions will reflect Christ’s actions.

In other words, you know you are becoming the person you should be if every day you look more like Jesus than the day before.

And that’s a comforting thought. You don’t have to look exactly like Jesus tomorrow; you just have to look more like Him than you do right now.