S.H.A.P.E. (5)

The letter E stands for experience. How can you know God’s will for your life? Paul answers, ‘Let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you’ (v.2 NLT). The word ‘transform’ means ‘to change in shape’. Your life’s experiences will gradually transform you and point you towards your life’s purpose. Even the bad experiences can have value. A diamond is created through unrelenting pressure over a long period of time, which transforms it into something beautiful. The psalmist said, ‘I used to wander off until you disciplined me; but now I closely follow your word.…My suffering was good for me, for it taught me to pay attention to your decrees’ (Psalm 119:67, 71 NLT). Sometimes, the pain of doing wrong can teach us a lot about the way to do things right. And when people try to put us down, we can use the experience to declare God’s truth even stronger. Paul wrote, ‘My imprisonment here has had the opposite of its intended effect. Instead of being squelched, the Message has actually prospered’ (Philippians 1:12 MSG). Then he added: ‘Everything happening to me in this jail only serves to make Christ more accurately known, regardless of whether I live or die. They didn’t shut me up; they gave me a platform! Alive, I’m Christ’s messenger; dead, I’m his prize. Life versus even more life! I can’t lose’ (Philippians 1:20-21 MSG). The back of a tapestry looks like a chaotic, tangled mess of threads. But that’s what it takes to produce a picture of beauty, order, and value.