I want to be more like Jesus

Yesterday morning while spending my time with the Lord in the early morning, I was in Matthew and really meditating on Jesus’ character and thinking about how much I long to be like Him. He was perfect (still is!) and while He was on earth lived a perfect sinless life as a man always obeying the Father and every moment of His life loving God with all of His heart, soul, mind, and strength. I thought about how we, as Christians, are to be striving every day as hard as we can to be more and more like Him.(And I might add that this is certainly possible, but only with His help. So we need to be relying on Him and trusting in His strength to enable us to be as He wants us to be.)

This process is called sanctification.
“Sanctification is a progressive work of God and man that makes us more and more free from sin and like Christ in our actual lives.”

How can we be more like Jesus?

Here is what came to mind as I was praying for God to make me more like His Son.
Something that happened at work just over this past week popped into mind. I have worked at this particular job for over three years now. I spend more waking hours with these people than I do with my own family at home. I often hear them commenting on how they know each other SO well and how they spend more time with each other than they do their own husbands. Well…I find myself also now finishing their sentences, hearing some of their favorite phrases come out of my own mouth, and knowing exactly what they are thinking in a particular situation just by an expression on their face or one look in their eye. A couple of days ago one lady said something, and I made a comment back. Then she said, as she often does, “You know me so well.” My reply was simply, “Yeah, it’s kinda scary sometimes.”

So as I was praying, I thought of this and realized just how much more I need to spend time with my Savior. Think about it. The more time we spend with someone, the more we become like that person. The more we observe them, talk with them, really LISTEN to them, and even think about them…the more we find ourselves so connected to them and becoming like them(even in our thinking).

Isn’t this how it should be with Jesus? I found myself crying out to God just pleading with Him to give me a hunger and thirst for His Word and for righteousness.
We need His help, and we need to do our part! Ask God to reveal Himself to You and to open your heart to desire Him more so you may know Him better and become more like Jesus.

Here is another verse that came to mind:
"Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we will be. We know that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is." 1 John 3:2

When Christ comes back to bring His children home, it says that we will be like Him because we will see Him just as He is. God promises that when Christ returns He will transform our lowly bodies to be like His glorious body(Phil 3:21). Well, this is because we will see Him! We won’t be made fully perfect until that day comes, but as we eagerly await that day we can strive to be more like Him by spending time with Him in prayer and meditating on His Word. God has given us His Word to reveal Jesus to us today, and through His Word we can see Jesus and know Him. The more we see of Him and spend time with Him, this is how we can become more and more like Him each day until that final glorious day when we will really truly see Him and be made perfect just as He is.

I am reminded of the hymn “Take Time to be Holy”.
I chose just a few key parts of the hymn that really go along with what I have written.

Take time to be holy, speak oft with thy Lord;
Abide in Him always, and feed on His Word.

Take time to be holy, the world rushes on;
Spend much time in secret with Jesus alone.
By looking to Jesus, like Him thou shalt be.

By looking to Jesus...We become like Him by looking to Him. Fix your eyes and your heart on Jesus and spend the time with Him that you must. Study Him, talk to Him, sing to Him, worship Him, think about Him throughout your day, & really truly LISTEN to Him when you pray.
There is no greater thing. He is our treasure. He’s the pearl of greatest price. He’s the one we must sell all that we have for. He is the only Way, the only Truth, and the only Life.

I want to, I need to, be more like Jesus.