Head to Toe Him

One of the great movements of God is the flattening of the ego.  We think we know exactly what God wants to do with us, we prepare ourselves for His great interventions and then everything falls apart.  We go through the crushing despair  that wrecks our preconceived ideas of how God should be; of how He must be.  We also lose our sense of who we are; we are not basically good and well arranged, we are instead rebellious children who want our way above all else.  As God flattens us, He also picks us up off the ground and grants us favor in His Kingdom.  We learn to trust Him unconditionally.  We obey Him with finality.  We stick to Him when others about us turn traitorous.  God will not let you off the hook if you have given Him your life.  He will complete what He started which is to make you His completely both in how you are and how you look.  The family resemblance will be unmistakable when the Lord finishes with you.  The patience of His grace, the courage of His will, the integrity of His personality will be what is found in you too.  Until you look and sound and taste just like the wine and bread of Christ, you will feel the firm working of His hands upon your soul.  You are not in God's hand being polished; you are being remade and that does not come easily or quickly.  Taste and see that the Lord is good.  Is that not where you too are approaching?  It is not an imitation of Christ that you are gaining so much as the reality of it; Christ in you, the hope of glory.  The day will come when it will be impossible to separate the Christ from the you just as it is impossible for the one who knew your mother to be able to separate you from your mother as you approach her age.  The resemblance will not be at just one level of personality but through and through Christ will be seen in you.  That is where you are being taken and eventually you will get there.  The Cross of Jesus Christ, the redemption He established through it is the certification that you are being perfected even now as you walk through the fires and crushing of day by day life.  Give up on your hope of having a comfortable and clear life.  It will not happen as long as you are still a step away from the endpoint of being fully Christ's from head to toe.

God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.   Colossians 1:27 NIV