Challenged...but Changed?

I'm the kind of person that loves a challenge.  I enjoy challenging myself to improve at everything from bowling, building, speaking, writing, in practically every area of my life.  I like board games that challenge me to think.  I like to read books and listen to sermons that provide strong challenges.  When muscles are not strained through strenuous exercise, they begin to atrophy almost immediately.  In the same way, when I am not spiritually challenged I feel like my strength begins to wane.  Fellowship with other believers, being challenged by the Holy Spirit as I spend time in the Word and prayer, and through the testimony of other strong believers, my "spiritual fitness" level is greatly increased.

But there is a catch to every challenge:  it involves the necessity of action on our part.  For a new reader, even the simplest of words are a challenge to read and pronounce.  As reading improves, what was once a challenge no longer provides the same stretching and exercise of our minds.  At my son's (Zed) school, there is a reading assessment system that ranks books according to difficulty.  If a student tests at 1000 points, he can only read for credit books that are ranked at 950 or above.  This ensures that the student is being challenged with new words to enlarge vocabulary and improve comprehension.  The reason why this program exists is because most kids will not voluntarily challenge themselves.  The same tendency toward apathy and ease exists in the heart of every person on earth.

Some people feel they have accomplished a great feat if they have been challenged.  Being challenged doesn't count for squat.  It is only when challenge results in change that gives challenge any value at all.  People are sometimes challenged to roll out of a warm bed into a cold room, but that does not mean congratulations are in order!  When God speaks to us, it will always be challenging.  Once God transforms us through spiritual rebirth through faith in Jesus Christ, we still live in a body of flesh which tends toward selfishness and sin.  It is contrary to our flesh to be conformed into the image of Jesus.  Because we are not naturally like God there will always be a resistance to His ways.

Sitting down under solid Biblical doctrine ought to result in personal challenge.  But we cannot be satisfied with going to church, being challenged every Sunday by God, and then not seeking to meeting that challenge.  I once heard a pentacostal pastor tell his staff (and I paraphrase), "If you pray and fall down, then you better be different when you get up - otherwise, why fall down?"  Now I distance myself from falling down or providing "catchers" at prayer meetings for lack of Biblical precedence, but I agree with the sentiment.  What's the point of effort without change?  Why listen to sermons we are not willing to put into practice?  Why read the Bible if we refuse to obey?  Why ask God to speak to us if we aren't willing to listen?

I praise God that He is able and willing to change me, because I am incapable of changing myself.  Physical effort will not result in spiritual transformation.  No amount of outer discipline can produce inner change.  It is our God who works in us both to will and do of His good pleasure.  We are His workmanship, we are His building, and we are the temple of the Holy Spirit.  The work God has begun He will be faithful to complete.  I like being challenged.  It's being changed that I tend to risist.  God wants to change that about every one of us.  We need to be challenged.  But more than that, we need to be changed.  May God have His perfect will performed in each one of us as we yield to His truth and conform to His ways.