Who’s shaping and directing you?
Passage (NIV): Matthew 17
Preacher: Mark Kingston
What Is Shaping You?
Here’s a simple truth: we all follow something. We all have voices we listen to, things we trust, and stories that help us make sense of life. Over time, those things shape us. They provide answer to some of life’s really big questions, like…
Who am I?
What makes me valuable?
What should I fear?
What does a good life look like?
Where is my life going?
Plenty of other voices offer answers. Your news feed will tell you what to fear. Advertising will tell you what you need to be happy or accepted. Money may promise safety.
But the Bible’s claim is that ultimately only God can be trusted to answer those questions well. He made us, knows us completely, loves us, and knows how we are shaped.
When we look to someone or something else for answers to these kinds of questions, the Bible has an old word for it: idolatry. The bible warns us against it because following “voices” other than God’s will lead us away from life, not towards it.
And there’s another problem. Even if we think we are listening to God, our picture of God can become distorted. Here’s an example from my own life: years ago, I was challenged by someone to write down an image that honestly described my relationship with God. This was a hard exercise - but I end up picturing my expereince with God as being a bit like being stuck in a maze. I knew I needed help - and I called out to God to help me - but it seemed at that time like God’s help always just around the next corner, but never quite there when I needed him. Once I admitted that to myself, I realised how angry I felt!
I realised that my picture of him was broken. That was the start of a journey to rediscover God - as He is - not as I might have imagined him to be.
So how do we know what God is really like? Matthew 17 gives a wonderfully clear answer: Look at Jesus. At the Transfiguration, the disciples see Jesus revealed in glory. Then the Father says, “This is my Son, whom I love… listen to him.”
Here’s the big idea: Don’t start with the God you have built in your imagination and try to fit Jesus into that picture. Start with Jesus, and let Jesus show you what God is like.
Coming down the mountain
If we watch Jesus in Matthew 17, we see him glorifed but then soon coming down the mountain, away from the glory and straight into the mess of human suffering. He meets a desperate father and a suffering boy, and uses his power not to protect himself or make himself important, but to bring freedom and healing to those who needed it most.
That tells us that God is not distant or self-protective, but uses his power to move toward suffering people and bring healing and freedom.
Then Jesus challenges his disciples because they have started treating God’s power almost like a technique they know how to use. Jesus brings them back to faith, prayer and dependence. God’s work can only be done in God’s strength.
Temple Taxes
Even in the strange little story at the end of Matthew 17 (about paying the temple tax), the same pattern appears. Jesus knows who he is and what rights he has, but he is willing to lay those rights aside rather than let them get in the way of others.
So when we look at Jesus, what do we see?
Power given away. Healing offered. Dependence on the Father. Rights held lightly. Love moving towards people in need.
That is what God is like. And if we keep listening to Jesus and following him, that is the kind of people we will slowly become too.
Reflection Questions
How is your baseline of life at the moment?
Are you becoming more peaceful and loving, or more anxious, angry, fearful or demanding? What might that tell you about what has been shaping you?When life is hard, what picture of God do you tend to carry?
Does Jesus confirm that picture, or might he want to show you something truer about who God is?If Jesus shows us what God is really like, where do you need fresh revelation of that right now?
Perhaps your prayer this week can simply be,“Father, help me see you more clearly as I look at Jesus. Clear away the false pictures I carry, and show me what you are truly like.”
