Recently, my wife and I met some long-time friends over dinner. And during our conversations at the table, my wife made some cold and lame jokes which cracked everyone up. After that, a friend commented that my wife is becoming more like me – in being lame which was so unlike her in the past. My wife took that as a compliment and said, “what to do, we have been together for 26 years … if you can’t beat him, join him!”
It’s not uncommon for couples who have been married for a long time to be asked if they are brother and sister because they have become so alike each other. I guess this makes sense because the more we spend our lives together, we become like each other in some aspects.
In Romans 8:29, we see that God’s purpose for our lives is to for us to be like His Son. And He promises to do this for each of us – “doing the good work within us, and He will continue his work until it is finally finished on the day when Christ Jesus returns.” (Phil 1:6).
How does God grow us to be more like His Son?
I came across this quote by the author of a devotional that I was reading and he shared, “God is far more concerned with your Christlikeness than your comfort. Often, more spiritual progress is made through disappointment and failure than through success and laughter. While we shouldn’t seek out hardship, we can recognize that our Father knows best and that nothing takes Him by surprise.
When we experience “unanswered” prayer or when our challenges and pain linger far longer than we wish, we find hope in seeing that God’s eternal purpose is at work in and through the lives of His children.” (Alistair Begg)
What caught my attention was his sentence, “Often, more spiritual progress is made through disappointment and failure than through success and laughter.”
And I was again reminded that God doesn’t waste any of our pains or tears that we may experience in our lives. We can take encouragement from Romans 8:28 which says, “And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them.” (NLT) Though we may not fully understand His ways fully, we can trust God for His sovereign ways in making us more like His Son.
Many of you would know that John Newton wrote the well-known hymn Amazing Grace. But there is another hymn he wrote entitled – I Asked the Lord That I Might Grow.
VERSE 1
I asked the Lord that I might grow
In faith and love and ev’ry grace,
Might more of His salvation know,
And seek more earnestly His face.
VERSE 2
‘Twas He who taught me thus to pray,
And He, I trust, has answered prayer,
But it has been in such a way
As almost drove me to despair.
VERSE 3
I hoped that in some favored hour
At once He’d answer my request
And, by His love’s constraining pow’r,
Subdue my sins and give me rest.
VERSE 4
Instead of this, He made me feel
The hidden evils of my heart
And let the angry pow’rs of hell
Assault my soul in ev’ry part.
VERSE 5
Yea, more with His own hand He seemed
Intent to aggravate my woe,
Crossed all the fair designs I schemed,
Humbled my heart and laid me low.
VERSE 6
“Lord, why is this,” I trembling cried;
“Wilt Thou pursue Thy worm to death?”
“Tis in this way,” the Lord replied,
“I answer prayer for grace and faith.”
VERSE 7
“These inward trials I employ
From self and pride to set thee free
And break thy schemes of earthly joy
That thou may’st find thy all in Me.”
I Asked the Lord that I Might Grow: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-44GH3NhdIA&list=RD-44GH3NhdIA&start_radio=1
Here’s an encouraging background about John Newton and this particular hymn he wrote.
“John Newton is one of the most well-known Christian figures of the past 500 years. Born in London in 1725 and died in London in 1807, Newton, as a young man, lived a vulgar and sinful life and worked on slave ships for several years prior to turning in faith to Jesus in 1748.
Starting out as young believer, in keeping with the heart of God himself (Mt. 6:9-10), Newton asks not for wealth, health, success, or comfort, but for growth in Christ—greater degrees of maturity, more love for people, more strength against sin, and a deeper personal relationship with the Lord himself.
Newton goes on to testify that God did, in fact, answer his prayer. But rather than making Newton the ‘super Christian’ he was asking to be, God grew him in a way that he never could have imagined, and that, by the sounds of it, drove him to the point of despairing of life, maybe even to thoughts of suicide: (as seen in verse 2).
In verses 4, 5 and 6, we see that God answered John Newton’s prayer in two ways. First, he showed him the depths of the darkness and grossness of sin and wickedness that were still so alive and well within his own heart. Second, he disrupted his life ambitions, undermining those desires that we all have for success and influence.
If you have asked the Lord to grow you, to strengthen you spiritually, to help you defeat a particular sin, to make you a kinder, more patient, more faithful follower of the Lord Jesus, and all you seem to be seeing so far are external difficulties, frustrated plans, unmet desires, and greater measures of sin than you even realized were in you, then be encouraged.
Know that God is at work answering your prayers. He will certainly sustain you and restore you!”*
Many of us can relate to this. We too would want to pray for these similar things for our lives – that we become more like Christ himself. Yet in the course of our Christian lives, we struggle with sin, with doubts, with our failures and discouragement.
Take heart! Our heavenly Father continues His good work in our lives. He has a plan and purpose for each one He calls His own. We may not see His work in our lives immediately but we can be sure He will bring it to completion.
And we can be assured of this: today is another day when our Father will be making you and I more like His Son.
I encourage you to listen to the hymn and let it be our personal song sung to the Lord expressing our desire to grow to be more like His Son. And let the timeless words of the hymn echo through our inner souls.
“’Tis in this way,” the Lord replied,
“I answer prayer for grace and faith.
These inward trials I employ
from self and pride to set thee free,
and break thy schemes of earthly joy
that thou may’st find thine all in me.”
*https://firmfoundationpv.org/lyrical-expositions-i-asked-the-lord-that-i-might-grow-by-john-newton/
