God's plan is to completely transform you

Did you know that our destiny is glorious? As a Christian, God has some amazing plans for us. He wants to give us more than we could ask for or imagine.

The New Testament has many wonderful promises for those who believe the Christian message of salvation. Indeed, God has incredible plans for his people and an ambitious end goal- total transformation of his children. He plans to change us (like the Narnia characters Susan, Peter, Lucy and Edmund) into kings and queens, metaphorically speaking.

It may seem hard to believe but God has told us in the Bible that we will one day be like him (see 1 John 3:2 and 2 Peter 1: 3-4) This doesn’t mean we’ll be equal to God, but we will be glorious if we co-operate with God's grace.

Psalm 82:6 says: “I said, ‘You are gods’ and all of you are children of the Most High’.

The great Christian writer and creator of the Narnia Chronicles, C.S. Lewis, commented on this scripture and God’s desire to make us perfect. In his classic work, Mere Christianity , he wrote:

““The command “Be ye perfect” is not idealistic gas. Nor is it a command to do the impossible. He is going to make us into creatures that can obey that command.

“He said (in the Bible) that we were “gods” and he is going to make good his words. If we let him- for we can prevent him if we choose- he will make the feeblest and filthiest of us into a god or a goddess, dazzling, radiant, immortal creatures, pulsating all through with such energy and joy and wisdom and love as we cannot now imagine, a bright stainless mirror which reflects back to us perfectly (though of course on a much smaller scale) his own boundless power and delight and goodness.

“The process will be long and in parts very painful, but that is what we are in for. Nothing less. He meant what he said”

Yes, God’s ultimate goal for you and me is quite amazing- a metamorphosis beyond our wildest dreams.

Just as a caterpillar has no concept of flying freely as a butterfly, we can’t easily grasp this concept of becoming god-like and glorious- it’s too far away from our current reality. But we do need to accept that this is God’s will for us. It will help us to do our part in the process of spiritual transformation.

Change happens in stages. St Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 3:18 that as we contemplate the Lord’s glory, we are transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.

Spiritual maturity is not something that God will force upon us, but he exhorts us to fix our eyes on him and press on towards the goal of becoming Christ-like; loving, joyful, wise, peaceful and resilient. This requires our cooperation.

Humility is the key, because Jesus said that those who humble themselves will be exalted by God, and whoever wants to be great must be a servant to others. We can't grow simply by introspecting on our spiritual state; humility is about taking the focus off ourselves and living a life of love for God and our fellow humans. It takes practice because it doesn’t come naturally to us as human beings. I say this as someone who can be a tremendous navel gazer!

We can co-operate in the sanctifying process but we can’t make ourselves holy. He will refine us through our life experiences and especially through our everyday relationships. This refining is far from painless but yields a wonderful reward.

Here are a few principles we can follow to grow in holiness:

We can choose to trust God- our loving heavenly Father knows what he’s doing. We may not understand at this precise moment what the process of becoming holy looks like for each one of us, but he is just waiting for us to ask of him: “What’s next, Papa?”. He wants us to be excited about the journey we’re on.

To gain strength, we can meditate on God’s promises daily. It’s powerfully healing to sit quietly in his presence every day and take one or two Bible verses to ponder on and then pray over. Meditative prayer leads us into higher levels of contemplation where God is at work transforming us. Receiving the Blessed Sacrament and practising regular confession are two vital activities for Christians who want to grow.

Be prepared to suffer in the process of spiritual transformation. You will certainly have highs and lows- but God can work powerfully through all of your experiences. Whatever it costs, the end result will be worth any temporal pain. This is the experience of all the saints who ever lived. Allow St Paul to encourage you with the words of Romans 8:18: “ I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us”.

Lyn is the author of Royal Birds: God’s Overcoming Daughters , a book to empower women.

A former news reporter, features editor and psychology tutor, Lyn is based in the English Midlands and lives with her husband, alongside a herd of Limousin-cross cows. She has two grown-up children and her favourite activities include worship, drawing and painting, dancing, blogging and journaling.