Just one Word

Malachi 3:3 (New International Version)
3 He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver; he will purify the Levites and refine them like gold and silver. Then the LORD will have men who will bring offerings in righteousness,

"Lord, make me more like Jesus." I found myself praying this prayer this morning and although I've prayed it many times before, and with a sense of consecration; this time, God stopped me in my tracks.

"More?" he seemed to challenge me; and I suddenly saw the limitation in that word.

"'More' like Jesus," may be a worthy goal; but it falls short of Romans 8:29 (New International Version)
29For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.

And so I prayed again, differently this time, "Lord, make me like Jesus."

There is an inherent danger in those words, and I felt immediately the difference. Conforming implies a pressing into shape, not a sketch of something.

Suddenly I felt as if I had stepped from a relatively safe zone, into a danger zone--the zone of, "God you have carte blanche; complete authority; in my life."

Strange how just removing that little word, "more," would make such a difference!

Deuteronomy 13:3 (New International Version)
3 ...The LORD your God is testing you to find out whether you love him with all your heart and with all your soul.

"All" my heart and soul is what God wants. Being "more like" him is still being in the boat, gazing out at him and thinking that "one day" maybe I could get out there on the water with him. "Being like," is being out on the waves, my face and hair wet with the spray; my heart pounding with the glorious terror-faith of following this danger man; out in the roar of the deafening wind, eyes on the Master.

I want to be out there. I think maybe I just stepped out.

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