09/12/2026
THE WORD FOR TODAY
Chapter 4 — Who Are You Becoming?
“Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.” — Matthew 4:19
There is something in the words of Jesus that I wonder if we sometimes pass over too quickly. He did not merely say, “Follow Me.” He continued, “and I will make you.” Those four words change the meaning of discipleship. Jesus was not merely asking Peter and Andrew to walk somewhere with Him. He was telling them that if they remained with Him, they would not remain the people they had always been. “I will make you.”
That brings us to a question we may not ask ourselves often enough: Who am I becoming?
We usually measure life by what we have accomplished, what we possess, where we have been, what has happened to us, or what we hope will happen next. Jesus looks deeper. He is concerned with the person being formed inside us while all those other things are happening. A person can succeed in the eyes of the world while becoming bitter, proud, selfish, or empty. Another person can walk through terrible difficulty while becoming compassionate, patient, courageous, forgiving, and deeply dependent upon God. The circumstances tell only part of the story. The deeper story is what those circumstances are producing within the soul.
I have walked with Christ long enough to know that this question does not belong only to new believers. I must ask it too. We all must. Am I becoming easier to offend or quicker to forgive? Am I becoming more concerned about being right or more concerned about being Christlike? When someone hurts me, is my first desire to wound them back, or am I learning to place them before God? When nobody is watching, am I becoming the same person I appear to be when everyone is watching?
These questions can make us uncomfortable, but discipleship was never intended merely to make us comfortable. Jesus intends to make us new.
Paul describes this transformation in Romans 12:2: “Be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind.” Transformation means something is actually changing. Christ is not simply adding religion to the person we already are. He is renewing the mind, reshaping desires, confronting old patterns, softening hard places, and teaching us a different way to live.
There is a beautiful emphasis within the ancient Ethiopian Christian tradition that belongs beside today's thought. Its teaching on beginning with Christ describes spiritual life as an ongoing process of becoming like Christ—continually feeding upon Him, surrendering the heart to Him, learning, practicing, and walking with those who have gone farther along the road. That ancient Christian understanding reminds us that discipleship has never been merely about collecting religious knowledge. We are being formed.
But formed into what?
The answer is not complicated.
Jesus.
Paul writes in Romans 8:29 that God's purpose is that we should be “conformed to the image of his Son.” That is where this road is taking us. Not toward becoming impressive Christians. Not toward becoming people who can quote more Scripture than everyone else. Not toward becoming people who appear religious.
Toward becoming like Jesus.
And that changes how we look at yesterday's wounds. Perhaps Christ is not only healing what happened to us; perhaps He intends to produce something through the healing. The person who has known mercy can become merciful. The person who has been forgiven can become forgiving. The person whom Christ has lifted from the ground can learn to kneel beside someone else who has fallen.
Peter is one of the great examples. The impulsive fisherman who once argued about who was greatest eventually wrote, “Yea, all of you be subject one to another, and be clothed with humility” (1 Peter 5:5). Something had happened to Peter. Jesus had been making him.
And He is making us.
That means some of the difficulties we ask God to remove may become places where He does His deepest work. James tells us that the trying of our faith produces patience. Paul tells us that tribulation produces perseverance and character. Jesus prunes fruitful branches so they can bear more fruit. We often ask, “Lord, when will You get me out of this?” Perhaps sometimes Jesus is asking, “Will you let Me change you while you are in it?”
That question reaches me too.
There are still things Christ must teach me. There are still places where I need greater patience, deeper trust, quicker forgiveness, and a heart more completely surrendered to Him. Being a disciple does not mean we have arrived. It means we have decided who we will allow to shape us along the way.
And Revelation shows us the astonishing destination. Jesus promises, “To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne” (Revelation 3:21). The journey that began with fishermen hearing “Follow Me” ends with redeemed people sharing forever in the victory of Christ. Between that first call and that final promise lies the life we are living now—the place where Jesus is making us.
So today, instead of asking God only to change your circumstances, sit quietly and ask Him something more personal:
“Jesus, what are You trying to change in me?”
Perhaps He will show you your impatience. Perhaps your pride. Perhaps your fear. Perhaps the way you speak to someone you love. Perhaps the resentment you continue feeding. Perhaps He will show you that you have spent so much time regretting who you were that you have failed to notice who, by His grace, you are becoming.
Do not run from what He shows you.
Remember the promise.
“I will make you.”
You are not doing this alone.
The Carpenter of Nazareth is still shaping lives.
Today’s Prayer
Lord Jesus, I have spent so much time asking You to change the things around me that I have sometimes forgotten to ask what You are changing within me. Today I place myself before You. Show me where I have become hard, impatient, proud, fearful, bitter, or unwilling to forgive. Do not merely make my road easier; make me more like You while I walk it.
When life wounds me, make me compassionate. When people disappoint me, teach me grace. When I fail, make me humble enough to rise and follow again. When I succeed, keep me humble enough to remember who gave me the strength. And when another struggling person crosses my path, let that person encounter something of You in me.
Yesterday I asked You to heal my wounds. Today I ask You to use even those wounds in shaping the person You created me to become.
I am still following, Lord.
Keep making me.
Amen.
Tomorrow — Chapter 5: What Do You Do When Jesus Seems Silent?