“But when the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the angels with Him, then He will sit on His glorious throne. And all the nations will be gathered before Him; and He will separate them from one another, just as the shepherd separates the sheep from the goats; and He will put the sheep on His right, but the goats on the left.
“Then the King will say to those on His right, ‘Come, you who are blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry, and you gave Me something to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me something to drink; I was a stranger, and you invited Me in; naked, and you clothed Me; I was sick, and you visited Me; I was in prison, and you came to Me.’” Matthew 25:31-36

Home renovation shows are very popular currently. The hosts walk through and plan for the design and changes that they will make, then take the rest of the episode to transform the spaces from worn down and in disrepair to beautiful and functional. At the end of the episode, they reveal a space that has been changed inside and out, hardly recognizable for what it once was.

Similarly, when we follow Jesus, God changes our lives completely to look like Him. This is more than a one-time decision or a fix for one area of life. When we surrender to Jesus and make Him Lord of our lives, our lives are transformed and come under His direction. On the day He separates the sheep from the goats, that transformation will be evident. He will not be looking at church attendance, what teachers you listened to, or the values you held. He will look for a life that reflected Him as one surrendered to Christ and serving others. A new set of beliefs does not have this kind of power to change us; it is only through the power of the Holy Spirit that God changes us from living for ourselves to living for God and seeing and serving other people.

• How has your life been transformed by Jesus? In what ways does your life look like His?
• What areas of your life need to be further surrendered to God for transformation? What keeps you from submitting these areas?
• Pray and invite God to radically transform your life to look like Him and to believe His restoration is far better than anything you could do on your own.