God Transforms Us Into His Own Image

“May Your will, O Lord! be fulfilled in me in whatever way You shall please: if You wish it to be fulfilled by afflictions, only grant me strength, and let them come: if by persecutions, sickness, disgrace, and poverty – lo! Here I am: I will not turn away my face, O my Father!”  (St. Teresa of Avila, The Way of Perfection: Reflections on the  Lord’s Prayer, written 1565-66)

We get depressed because of our circumstances. We don’t experience the miracles God wants to give us because of our lack of faith and inappropriate focus.

I am 100 percent convinced when we are in trial, and when we share the love of Jesus, everything changes. We feel joy; the anxiety of our challenges seems so much less severe.  God transforms us into His image. We depict the fruit of the Spirit and have more love, joy, peace, patience, kindness and everything else worthy of God’s grace.

Jesus was extremely clear. We must be the light of the world. Again and again, God has given me the commandment to take back the darkness, the darkness of sin, addiction, slavery to the world, flesh and the enemy.

Matthew 5:14-16 “You are the light of the world. A city set on a mountain cannot be hidden. Nor do they light a lamp and then put it under a bushel basket; it is set on a lampstand, where it gives light to all in the house. Just so, your light must shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your heavenly Father.”

It is critical for us to learn how to share our faith. God wants us to do just that, and yet, we often are afraid. We feel inadequate and ill-prepared, and avoid it like the plague.

There are seven steps to help you be “the light of the world.”

The first step is to desire to share your faith. This seems obvious, but most of us don’t get past the first step. If we seek, we will find. If we desire God’s will, it will be given to us.  

In my experience, sharing our faith and the love of Jesus transforms our attitudes and moods in all circumstances. Are we open to at least trying?

One day, I had a flat tire on my car. “What?” I was grumbling and complaining. My plan was not happening. I was sitting on a bench waiting for my car to be repaired when the Lord came upon me with a message. I felt Him telling me the reason for my flat tire was to tell the garage manager that God loved him and to return to Him.

I got up from the bench and went to find the garage manager. When I found him, I introduced myself as the local deacon and asked him if he was Catholic. Much to my surprise, he said, “Yes.” 

I thought I was out of the woods until he added to his comment, “But I haven’t been to church in 30 years.”

Okie dokie! I told him I had been sitting on the bench, patiently waiting, when I felt God telling me a message to share with him. I shared the message for the man to return to God. His eyes widened, and he told me he had had several dreams the past week in which God appeared to him to tell him to return to Church with his wife and family. He committed to me that he was going to do just that!

The second step in becoming a light to the world is to enhance your relationship with Jesus. Do you know Jesus in your heart? Do you communicate throughout the day in a two-way exchange? 

So many people say they never hear from God. One of my favorite stories involves Saint Joan of Arc before the Queen of France who asks her, “How can a peasant girl hear from God and the Queen of France does not?” Joan answered quickly, “Your highness, God is communicating to you all day long, but you are not listening.”

To be in relationship, we must know each other. God has not left us orphans. He promised us He would guide us to all truth. We must expect Him to talk to us in the stillness of prayer, through Scripture, other people, songs, quiet whispers and many other ways. The more we are open to God’s voice, the more we will hear Him.

Participation in Mass, praying the rosary, adoration, reading Scripture and having an hour alone with the Lord are things that draw us closer to Jesus and allow us to hear Him more clearly.

The third step in sharing our faith is to become the personification of the love of Jesus. I love what Saint Peter says about loving one another:

1 Peter 1:22 “Love one another intensely from a [pure] heart.” 

1 Peter 4:8 “Above all, let your love for one another be intense, because love covers a multitude of sins.”

How do we love God and each other intensely? We do by sharing our faith. By letting people know how much God loves them and that, as written in Romans 8, nothing will separate them from the love of God.

I remember when my brother was going through a hard time and didn’t have a relationship with God. I prayed the love of Jesus into him and told him I was more convinced God was real than the table in front of us was real. 

You are the fifth Gospel! Tell people your story in love. This is not about how much Scripture or theology you know, or being an expert in Catholicism, but it is about loving people with the love of Jesus. 

For many years, we prayed with another couple on Friday night after going out to dinner. One particular night, we had been praying for four hours. It was 11:30 p.m. God had us praying over a woman who had childhood stress and needed emotional healing. I prayed for the love of Jesus to flow through me into her to heal her of her wounds and memories. 

Suddenly, with a tremendous burst of the love of Jesus flowing through me into her, I saw the Blessed Mother standing a few feet away, praying with us. In a sequence of a few seconds, I saw her praying, her cloak, twelve stairs over her head, angels at her feet and then the entire room filled with angels. I am convinced the Blessed Mother is always there, as a spiritual mother, praying with us with her special love and the love of Jesus!

The fourth step is obedience. We know we are to tell others about Jesus, whether we feel like it or not. I had a unique experience when I was on the East Coast flying from Manchester, New Hampshire, to Philadelphia. I was sitting on the plane in a window seat with the middle seat empty.

I was reading the Bible and it was 7:30 p.m. I was tired and didn’t want to talk to anyone. The Lord came upon me and told me to talk to the woman in the aisle seat.

I definitely was not embracing the obedience rule because I told the Lord I was tired and didn’t want to do it. Every few minutes, I felt the Lord, on a 45-minute flight, tell me to talk to her. I kept refusing.Then about 20 minutes into the flight I sneezed, and the woman said “God bless you.”

I felt as if a bell went off. I smiled and asked the woman if she was going home to see her family. She answered, “Yes, I am going home to see my husband and daughter. They think I was at a work conference, but I was with my lover.”

Wow! Are you kidding me? All within the first few seconds! She even pulled out a New Yorker magazine with an article about a woman cheating on her husband. She said she was a Christian, like me, but no one is perfect.

I looked into the air and prayed. God came to me with a question. I asked her, “Do you ever pray with your boyfriend?” She looked at me and said that she prayed with her husband but not with her boyfriend.

I then asked her, in love, if her relationship with her boyfriend brought her closer to God. She looked at me with tears in her eyes and said, “God doesn’t come to you with a brick but with a feather, and you are my feather.” She promised to leave her boyfriend and return to God.

The fifth step is to embrace the power of the Holy Spirit. When we pray for healing we show the love of Jesus in a way pleasing to Him. Miracle after miracle occurs when we simply say “Yes” to His love. Many times when the power of the Lord flows and people feel the love of God, they are healed spiritually, mentally and physically. 

The sixth step is to “bloom where you are planted.” You needn’t go looking for people to share your faith with, they will come to you.

I was working in the “field” with a sales rep when she asked me to pray over her. She had broken her wrist, knew I was a deacon and in the healing ministry, and was scared. When we began that day, the last thing I felt I was going to do was share the love and healing power of Jesus with this particular sales rep. 

She told me she was scared because she played tennis, and her wrist might never be the same again. I was in work mode and not deacon mode when it became apparent the reason I was with her was to enhance her faith and have the healing of power of Jesus come to her.

I asked her to pull the car over and began to pray fervently over her to be completely healed. I asked her to turn to God completely and gave her a rosary from the Holy Land. She began to get emotional, feeling the love of Jesus.

A few months later, we were at a national meeting and she saw me. I was vice president of sales. She came running up to me extremely excited and jumped into my arms. I quickly asked her what had happened.

She told me an amazing story. She said she had gone to see the orthopedic surgeon who took off her cast and x-rayed her wrist’s broken bone. After getting the x-ray results, the doctor came into the room astonished. His comment was, “I don’t know what happened, but the x-ray didn’t even show that you had ever had a broken wrist.” It was completely healed!

The power of God is one of the most convincing things that can ever happen to us. We see His love, and it changes our lives!

The seventh and final step is to be a person of invitation. Most people respond to other people who are truly interested in who they are as a person. How can we get to know them? When was the last time you invited someone to coffee, Mass, a meeting at church, a social function or something at your house? A great way of evangelizing is through small group meetings. Our parish has implemented the Renew International Program called “Be My Witness.” The program’s small groups focus on topics relating to evangelization.

The early Church developed by gathering daily and growing as a community. It can’t happen without that. 

Acts 2:46-47 “Every day they devoted themselves to meeting together in the temple area and to breaking bread in their homes. They ate their meals with exultation and sincerity of heart, praising God and enjoying favor with all the people. And every day the Lord added to their number those who were being saved.”

My brothers and sisters, I know it is hard. Life is difficult. That is why, when we persevere, we have the opportunity of receiving the “crown of life.”

When we focus on sharing our faith, everything changes. Our attitude becomes one of hope and belief. We trust God, and the miracles start flowing. Praise God! Now and forever!