Do You Need a Fixer Upper?

Do You Need a Fixer Upper?

One of my all time favorite reality shows is HGTV's "Fixer Upper", not just because I love the hosts and the hands-on builder and interior designers, Chip & Joanna Gaines, a delightful couple with their four young kids, who live their personal lives in a raw, oftentimes hilarious, and authentic way, but also because I love seeing them transform a dilapidated, hopeless house and property into a gorgeous family home. Yes, I'm an endorser of that show, because it is so inspiring.

We too can have become a "fixer upper" by allowing the Word of God and the work of the Holy Spirit to transform us. We can be renewed and restored with a "before" and "after" story that will encourage others that they, too, can be transformed. Once Chip and Joanna help people find their "before-the-dream-come-true" fixer upper, the people have to let Chip and Joanna perform their "magic" on the home. In the same way, we have to give ourselves up, relinquish control, and submit to God's transforming power in our lives.

Sometimes, the houses that Chip and Joanna help select for their clients are so pathetic, that they have to completely demolish the existing structure, and then they are able to start fresh and clean as though the old house was never there. They'll start from the ground up and build a spectacular home for the family. From Isaiah 43:18-19we hear “Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the desert and streams in the wasteland.” When we are ready to demolish that old life of regrets, mistakes, failures, tragedies, self-pity, defeat and sorrow, to living the glorious and abundant life that Crhist came to bring us, we will be God's "fixer upper" show-off of what a "Brand New Life" can look like and be.

Do you want to be a "fixer upper"? Do you want a life filled with peace, joy, abundance, healing and victory? Do you want your tired, weary and stagnant life to be transformed into life brand new? We can be because the One Who created us is ready to transform us from the inside out! The makeover we receive is all new and perfect in His sight.

What must we do? Give it up for Him. We must let go and put our lives in the hands of the Master Transformer. The choice is ours. We can submit ourselves to be fixed up, or we can hang on to the shabby house, the tattered clothes and the old way of life. The Lord won't force Himself onus. On the other hand, He will never turn us down . . . we merely need to say, "I'm ready, Lord. Have your way with me!" Now get out that bulldozer, crane and wrecking ball and take down that old house! Are you ready to be a FIXER UPPER?