When God Provides the Power to Change

Posted on by Jennifer Arimborgo

Old Treasures on Tuesdays!

Burden

“Give yourself to the Lord; trust in him, and he will help you” (Ps. 37:5, GNT).

This afternoon during my prayer time, He was gently convicting me about an area of my life that needs further transformation. His conviction was pure love. Pure tenderness.

In the past, I may have responded to a moment like that differently. I may have taken Holy Spirit’s message as instruction for self-improvement. I may have had a thought something like, Okay. That needs to change. I’m gonna try harder. I want to obey!

Today, I am in a different place. He has taught me to respond to His loving conviction instead like this: Yes, Daddy, I am in agreement with You. I submit to what You are breathing into my spirit for growth and change. Please send Your power through me, bringing forth the necessary changes by Your Spirit.

Instead of striving, I’m submitting. Instead of trying harder, I’m giving Him all the room He needs to work His mighty work inside of me. I’m coming to understand that He doesn’t bring these matters to my attention so that I can fix them myself. He is the Master Fixer-Upper! I’m fully cooperating with His powerful, gentle leadership as He spreads out His magnificent blueprints for transforming my soul. I’m yielding to the process He already began and He has promised to complete.

He may ask me for a specific step of obedience, to put into action what He is doing in my soul. If He does, I will respond, Yes Daddy. I choose to obey. I offer my body as a living sacrifice. Will you please let Your power flow through me right now as I step into what You are asking me to do? I thank You that You are the One working in me to will and to act according to Your good purpose!

Changing us is always His job. Yielding to Him is always our job. He convicts. We say yes; we invite Him to come. And He faithfully, relentlessly continues the work of transforming us into the image of Jesus.

What do we do, meanwhile, though, when we are not “there” yet? What do we do when we feel burdened by our perceived shortcomings? How do we handle those feelings? The Amplified Bible (Classic Edition) of our verse for today is worth looking at. It speaks to that heaviness that so often troubles us when we know we have fallen short:

“Commit your way to the Lord [roll and repose each care of your load on Him]; trust (lean on, rely on, and be confident) also in Him and He will bring it to pass.”

Isn’t that beautiful? Roll each care of your load onto Him. Including the heaviness you feel about letting Him, or others, or yourself down. Let Him take that weight from you. Trust in Him. Lean on Him. Rely on Him. Be confident. He will provide the power. He promises to keep on transforming you from glory to glory as you fix your eyes on Him. Yes, He will bring it to pass.

Now look at it one more time in the Good News Translation. “Give yourself to the Lord; trust in him, and he will help you.”

That’s it. Give yourself to Him. Every day. Every moment. Trust deeply in Him. He will provide all the help you need for obedience, transformation, and beautiful forward progress!

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Have you experienced the relief of completely rolling over onto Jesus the burden of having fallen short?

14 thoughts on “When God Provides the Power to Change”

  1. This makes me giggle! I read this post of yours after God drew my attention to what my husband was ordering for his bike – new bearings. Guess what I just read about the function of bearings: “Bearings reduce friction by means of this rolling motion.” 🤣😂

    Isn’t that what God does too? Rolling off our cares to reduce friction (internally and externally). Thank You, Jesus!! It’s all His doing from start to finish. Reminds me of this verse in the Message version:

    Ephesians 2:8
    Saving is all his idea, and all his work. All we do is trust him enough to let him do it. It’s God’s gift from start to finish!

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    1. Oh my goodness that definition is PERFECT! Holy Spirit is so good at producing those joyful giggles, I love it!! Also I hadn’t seen Ephesians 2:8 in the MSG version, that is so very perfect too!

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  2. It also says this:

    The “rolling bearing”, with its rolling motion, reduces friction more than the “plain bearing” with its sliding motion, allowing for a greater decrease in the amount of energy consumption during rotation.
    Source: https://koyo.jtekt.co.jp/en/2019/08/column01-03.html

    So He also conserves (and focuses) our energy (where it’s needed most)- not on our cares, but on Him, as He propels us forward toward Him – our Way, our truth and our life.

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  3. And this is so precious too. The Cambridge English Dictionary says:

    get/find your bearings 

    to discover your exact position:

    The road system was so complicated that we had to stop to get our bearings several times.

    to succeed in becoming familiar with a new situation:

    It takes a while to get your bearings when you start a new job.

    It’s so applicable to what He’s been showing me: that finding our bearings – discovering our position and becoming familiar with a new situation – comes as we draw near to Him (who is our positioning and the One through whom we come to know the new things – more of His character and person – that is set before us).

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  4. This is a powerfully true post. Of ourselves and our efforts and best intentions we are unable to bring about the change God desires. His Spirit and His power is the means of ongoing sanctification. Thank you.

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  6. So true, Jennifer! And how counterintuitive to our Western do-it-yourself mentality! I love the comparison of the “belt of Truth” to a tool belt. God may indeed give us instructions on what we need to do, but He will always provide everything we need to do it. 🙂❤️

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