There was a sign hanging on the wall of an establishment back in the gold rush days that went something like this, ”I ain’t what I ought to be, I ain’t what I’m going to be, but I’m thankful that I ain’t what I was.”

This is stated in homely language but it expresses the thought that we are constantly changing and we can all change for the better. Looking back, can we also be thankful that we are not now what we once were? Are we closer to God now than we were? Are our prayers more fervent now than they used to be? As we walk towards the Kingdom, can we honestly say that we feel closer to God today than we did a year ago?

If the answers to these questions is ”yes” then we can take heart that we are growing spiritually. If the answer is ”no” then this should act like a red flag for it is telling us something. Fortunately we can change a ”no” answer into a ”yes” if we really want to. If we have made little or no progress in growing closer to God, then let us begin right now to move in the right direction.

Paul in writing to the Corinthians said, ”If any man think that he knoweth anything, he knoweth nothing yet as he ought to know.” This agrees with the first part of the sign, ”I ain’t what I ought to be.” All of us ought to know more than we do. Acknowledging that we do not know all that we ought to know helps to prevent us from being puffed up by what we do know. It should also help motivate us to study more, read more, and pray more so that we can become what we want to be.

The second part of the sign showed that improvement is expected. ”I ain’t what I’m going to be.” If we are not satisfied with what we are and what we know, it is important that we become determined to improve. It really does not matter where we are right now so long as we have a burning desire to get where we want to go. Surely we all want to be in the Kingdom of God more than anything else in all the world. We can all get there from where we are right now if we really want to. God is not willing that any should perish. Those who will perish do so because they are not determined to seek first the Kingdom of God.

We need to acknowledge that it is not our own cleverness that will achieve for us the Kingdom. The wise man Solomon instructed us to ”Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.”

Believing that God will direct our paths, we need to get up on our feet and get going. God feeds the birds but He doesn’t put the food in their mouths. God will direct our paths but we can’t walk sitting down. If ”we ain’t what we’re going to be” then we had better get started in the right direction.

Paul tells us that Jesus Christ when he comes will ”change our vile bodies, that they may be fashioned like unto his glorious body.” Since he will do this, truly we are not now what we are going to be; but he won’t do this for our bodies if we have not already changed our minds from thinking worldly, fleshy thoughts to thinking spiritually. Again it is Paul who tells us that to be ”spiritually minded is life and peace.” He told the Corinthians, ”incredible as it may sound, we who are spiritual have the very thoughts of Christ.” We can’t do anything about our bodies but we can control our thoughts. Let us fill our minds with the things of God so that when Jesus returns ”we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.”