The better "me"

The other day I heard a thought that I know wasn’t mine.  “I’m not making you into a better ‘you.’” The Holy Spirit had been listening to all my attempts at being a more likable person.  I wanted to be me, but better.  The Holy Spirit wants me to be like Him.  There is a difference.

The “me” person is one I was born as, whereas the identity I have in Christ is one in which I am re-born into.  Idealistically, the Holy Spirit helps us “die” to our me-person as we become the re-born identity in Christ.  It is written that after we are re-born “all things become new” because the “old has passed away.” (2 Cor 5:17).

Being born-again begins when the Holy Spirit enters our own spirit.  The conversations that take place in our spirit after that event are remarkable, full of wisdom and knowledge.  And yet, those conversations are not from the me-person we are used to hearing from, and they pull us away from our own self-will.  To follow the Holy Spirit we can die daily to our me-person, or we can try to get God to accept a compromise; the better me-person.

When the Holy Spirit said that He was not making me into a better “me” He meant that I needed to put away my own attempts at bettering the person I was.  I needed to yield my opinions, indeed, my will over to God. Sometimes we think our opinions are so great that they are worth being guided by.  But they will not govern us the way the Holy Spirit does, nor will they help us to become who we are in Christ.  Our opinions will only help us to stay in the image we were in before accepting Christ as our Savior.

Our new identity in Christ may not be one, in our opinion, that we think is so great.  We may think our me-person could be great, with a little improvement. Act sweeter, lose weight, set appropriate boundaries . . . there are all sorts of strategies that would make us a more likeable person, to ourselves.  But in God’s opinion, our attempts would be in vain, for it is by the Holy Spirit that we become our created identity . . . for our identity is hidden in Christ, in God (Col 3:3). 

After hearing the Holy Spirit tell me “I’m not making you into a better ‘you’” I smiled, said that I was sorry, and yielded my will over to Him.  I value His opinion.  The One Who paid such a high price to purchase our souls can surely be entrusted to finish the work He began in us (Phil 1:6). I would like to encourage you today to lay aside your opinion of how you think you could be a better person, and let the Holy Spirit complete His work in you. Amen.