Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God—children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God. John 1:12–13 (NIV)
If you’re like most Christians, you have a heartfelt desire to please God, but sometimes you get frustrated because you feel like you’re falling a bit (or a lot) short.
You want to be a good spouse, parent, friend…but often feel that the characteristics you want to develop are just outside your reach. You may even feel like you are flawed somehow, like something is wrong with you, or you have to alter your personality or change the way you’re wired.
It’s not true. Being a Christian is all about becoming who you really are in Christ. But the problem may be that you’re trying to become what you believe you’re not, which is the wrong way to think. If you’ve given your life to Christ, you already are who you need to be.
I’m not saying that you became perfect the moment you made the decision to follow Jesus, but you have to differentiate between who you are (your identity), and the set of habits and behaviours you currently hold. You see, you get your identity from Jesus. The moment you decided to begin a relationship with Him, your entire identity changed.
Keep trying to better yourself of course, but realize that God has made you new. Stop getting angry with yourself for not being who you want to be (which puts change further out of reach). Instead, let the realization that you have the nature of God within you empower you to make every change you want to make!