Renovation of the Heart: Putting On the Character of Christ

by Dallas Willard

Wanting God to be God is very different from wanting God to help me.

Consider one of his “parables of the kingdom”: “The kingdom of the heavens is like a treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and concealed it. He was ecstatic. He sold everything he had and bought the field” (Matthew 13:44, PAR). Imagine that you discovered gold or oil in a certain property and no one else knew about it. Can you see yourself being sad and feeling deprived for having to gather all your resources and “sacrifice” them in order to buy that property? Hardly! Now you know what it is like to deny yourself, take up your cross, and follow Jesus!

Some pain is included, no doubt, because the old attachments are still there in our hearts and lives. They never all disappear at once. And we may experience some uncertainty from time to time, especially at the start. But the progress of spiritual formation will soon take care of that.