Today we warmly welcome our new Guest Author, Pastor Ross Smith, who invites us to allow God to change us from the inside – something we can’t do on our own. This can be challenging but worth the risk! Ed.

Sometimes we may mistakenly wear a piece of clothing inside out. A tag may be seen showing the garment size. This sort of information is generally hidden on the inside, not intended for the outside world to see. By way of analogy, our inside world is also hidden from view. Yet from God’s perspective, He prioritises the state of our inside world more than the state of our outside world. In fact, to know God is to let Him not only see our inside world but to welcome Him in so doing.

Whatever God wants to reveal, let lone re-shape, happens on the inside of a person first. His priority is not about what the outside world wants or demands. Nor are His priorities concerned with our performance or our need for approval from other people. Worldly values focus upon body and soul. His focus is with the spirit man. When a person is born again by the spirit of God, the inward person will receive truth and purpose. The believer will begin to live for God and not for himself. “…and He died for all, that those who live should live no longer for themselves, but for Him who died for them and rose again.” (2 Cor.5:15 NKJV)

To receive His Spirit requires humility on our part because we cannot reform ourselves with self-help methods. We need His help. The amazing fact about the Spirit is that He meets us at out point of need to help us but never to judge us or to diminish us. The latter may well have been our life experience, but the Lord looks past the limitations of our past. His focus is the example of His own Son who “made Himself of no reputation taking the form of a bondservant and coming into the likeness of men…He humbled Himself…” (Philippians 2:7-8 NKJV). The challenge for any of us is to be prepared to empty ourselves and to let Him re-build us from the inside out. Can we let go of all that we think defines our value and our personhood?

Nothing is too hard for God! He changed a proud Pharisee, named Saul who was the chief antagonist against the emerging church to become the chief advocate for the church. Paul declared “If anyone else thinks he may have confidence in the flesh, I more so…concerning zeal, persecuting the church; concerning the righteousness which is the law, blameless.” (Phil 3:3-6 NKJV). But after his encounter with Jesus, Paul’s inside world was turned upside down and inside out. He renounced anything and everything that relied upon his own efforts to attain right standing with the Lord. “But what things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ…I …count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ.” (Phil 3:7-8 NKJV).

Letting go can be risky. Trusting someone that we don’t know can be risky. We can build walls to protect ourselves from outside threats. We can inwardly isolate ourselves especially from the risk of being hurt. Yet God who knows us better than we know ourselves only ever wants to grow us to experience His unconditional love from the inside out.

“For the Lord does not see as man sees; for man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.” (1 Samuel 16:7 NKJV)

Pastor Ross Smith
6 February, 2025