I watched the film 'Transformers' today. Took me back a bit to my childhood and had a great combination of action, humour, romance and comedy. Totally the last place I'd expect God to speak to me, so what happens? God spoke. To explain what He said, let me outline the details of this film - apologies in advance if you haven't seen it.
The film is basically about a war between a race of mechanic-organisms, robotic living beings, which finds its way to 21st century America. The real 'transformation' in this film I found though is not these machines, as spectacular as that is. The real transformation in the film is of the main human character is a man called Sam Witwicky.
This guy starts of as the classroom outcast, left out of all the main social groups, made fun of, no good at sports and seen as a loser. In the course of the film he discovers his grandfather first discovered the 'Transformers' and left a pair of glasses that Sam now owns which hold the key to the survival of the human race, he has to make sure these glasses don't get into the wrong hands.
He and a the class beauty who starts off tagging along with him to run away from her boyfriend discover this information and that the Autobots, the good Transformers, have all along been following him and his family for decades. They are arrested and end up fighting all these machines, and he becomes the protector of 'The Cube', a power source which in the wrong hands could be fatal for mankind. In the end he uses this power to kill the most evil transformer, Megatron, and the Autobots win the war, becoming allies with the humans. During the battle he discovers reserves of courage and strength he never realised he had, and discovers his true identity. He becomes who he was always meant to be. Of course, as is the case in these films, he gets the girl.
Now how does this all relate to God? I think it does in so many ways. I think as Christians our journey can be a lot like Sam's. We all go through periods of doubt, periods we think we're rubbish. We can't do anything for God, we don't matter. It's everyone else that gets blessed and an easy life.
This, of course, is a total lie.
I know because I myself used to think like that. Losing my mum and being bullied at school are just two things which contributed to me thinking those exact thoughts about myself. But recently discovered that all of that was a total lie. God doesn't see what's on the outside. He doesn't see the insecurities, the fear, the doubts. He made us and He can see what we can be. He knows what we're capable of if we have Him on our side and are seeking and serving Him.
If our minds and lives are orientated around Him, we can do things we never believed we could, through Him. We can change the world. We can be warriors in the Spiritual battle that daily goes on to try and bring this world back to Jesus. God sees what we can be. Satan is trying to stop all this happening and will do anything within his power to stop it (He must be worried about this blog, as I've had a few tachincal difficulties posting it!).
He has limited power, but still significant power. He gives rise to doubts and insecurities about ourselves and our worth, as he takes our circumstances and uses them against us. He makes our lives difficult and uses subtle half-lies to manipulate us to walk away from God. Why? Because he knows how dangerous we are to him when we have the power of Jesus by our side, and when the only fear we have is of the Lord.
There is a spiritual battle going on on this earth, and as Christians we are all participants in it Prayer, worship, service, The Spirit and the word of God are our weapons against him, and against anything of God, Satan cannot stand. The best bit about this, is that the war has already been won. Jesus won the war for us on the cross. We can take strength and courage from the fact that no matter what Satan does, he cannot defeat the power of God or the cross. The battles will rage until Jesus returns, but Satan knows he has already lost.
The other amazing thing is that in our hearts is the power of God. He has put His spirit in us and as Timothy says, it is "Not a spirit of timidity, but of power and love and discipline" (2 Tim 1 v7). He is always with us, and His power and spirit is always with us, living in us. We can do anything with the power of God in us, anything that God tells us. Let's not be afraid, but move forward boldly.
Anything that comes against God cannot stand, and whatever the enemy throws at us, if we trust in God and put Him in the centre, we can get through it. We can be more and do more than we think. We can be 'transformed' more into God's image and into who He is calling us to be.
What an exciting prospect that is...
