The Right Kind Of Strong By Mary KassianSýnishorn

When you put your faith in Jesus, the Lord changed you into a new creation (2 Corinthians 5:17). He replaced your futile, carnal mind with the mind of Christ (Ephesians 4:17–24). You underwent a complete metamorphosis. It’s as if you changed from a caterpillar into a butterfly. You used to have a caterpillar brain, and now you have a butterfly brain.

Your carnal mind has been replaced with the mind of Christ.

The transformation is complete.

Done deal.

That doesn’t mean, however, that your old ways of thinking are gone. It’s as though you’re still stuck in the chrysalis. God gave you wings, but it’s up to you to fight your way out of your old, restrictive, caterpillar-mode of existence.

In one sense, the metamorphosis from a caterpillar into a butterfly is complete when the caterpillar dies in its green casket and turns into caterpillar soup, then nature refashions the sludge into a butterfly. But, in another sense, the metamorphosis isn’t complete until the butterfly breaks out of the chrysalis, starts behaving like a butterfly, and completely leaves all remnants of its caterpillar life behind.

The process of butterfly metamorphosis can help you understand the difference between God’s act of regeneration, wherein he changes you into a new creation, and the process of sanctification, wherein you must cooperate with the Holy Spirit and put in the daily effort to know and live out your new identity.

That crusty old jacket that encases you serves a useful purpose. As you push against it, your wings will strengthen and mature. One day you’ll break free from the chrysalis, spread your wings, and fly.

The problem . . . is that we’re not thinking the right way. We’re monarch butterflies who still think and act like caterpillars. We’re not working to strengthen our wings and leave creepy-crawly ways behind. Some of us aren’t aware that we even have wings! We’re comfortable snoozing in our crusty old caterpillar shroud. We’re not spreading our wings and soaring in the sunlight.

Caterpillar thoughts are keeping us down.