DIY Renovations
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Have you ever engaged in a DIY, a Do-It-Yourself project? All DIY projects are not the same. However, there are some projects where you are provided with all the instructions and ingredients, and you simply have to follow the instructions provided. A simple example of a DIY project is making “box cake”. You are not a baker, but you want to make a cake on your own. So, you enter the supermarket and look for “box cake” which has all the required ingredients, all the required measurements and all the instructions to follow. You make your purchase, you return home, and you make yourself a cake and as long as you have not deviated from the instructions and that you have used the required ingredients, the cake will come out the way that the manufacturer of the “box-cake” intended, and it will be a cake you can enjoy.
Similarly, engaging in the renovations we need in our lives so that the Holy Spirit has a clean temple to live in, is also like a DIY project. God provides all of the instructions; God tells us what materials we need. However, the success of the project is based upon our willingness to follow God’s instructions and use the materials He prescribed and His word, the Holy Bible is the manual to follow for a successful DIY project. Consider the following testimonies from the psalmist David:
“Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.”
Psalm 119:105
David, a man that walked with God, who struggled with His flaws understood that God’s word was a guiding light in his life.
“The law of the LORD is perfect, converting the soul: the testimony of the LORD is sure, making wise the simple.”
Psalm 19:7
David highlights that God’s word is perfect, in other words sufficient and lacking nothing, when it comes to having the instructions to renew and transform our lives.
Additionally, the apostle Paul shared with us in 2 Timothy 3:16&17:
All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness,17 so that the servant of God a may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.”
Therefore, the answer and solutions to renewing our lives or more specifically as Romans 12:2 puts it, the answers and guide to us renewing our minds, can all be found in God’s word. Therefore, spending adequate time in God’s word is essential to our renewal. However, our renewal and transformation of our lives, our temple, requires us to apply God’s word in a practical sense in our lives. An awareness of God’s word is not sufficient to transform our lives. Put another way, purchasing the “box-cake” will not automatically result in a cake being made. We need to practically put everything together. Listen to the words of Paul that he wrote to the people of Ephesus. Ephesians 4:1&2, 21-24:
“1As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. 2Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. 21when you heard about Christ and were taught in him in accordance with the truth that is in Jesus. 22You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; 23to be made new in the attitude of your minds; 24and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness”
The key verse from which I just read is verse 22 which states “22You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self,”. This is the act of renewing, of renovating the temple. It’s an act that God cannot do for us, but He gives us the instructions and the materials to be better people. That’s why I compared this experience to a DIY. Changing our lives requires both God’s input in our lives and our obedience to the process. Yet, I do not want to oversimplify the process, because it does require self-sacrifice and to have our lives renewed in Christ. However, the process is doable, and God is by your side every step of the way to help you with any questions, issues or concerns, to ensure that you are successful in living a renewed life.
