Formed, Not Fixed

"And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ." Philippians 1:6

I think that for a lot of people—and I know for myself—we see difficulties in life or tough feelings as things to be fixed.

We treat them like cracks in our surface, dents in our fenders, holes in our hulls. We identify the “problem,” search for the quickest solution, patch it up, and move on.

But I am coming to realize that this is not at all how life with Christ works.

We don’t need fixing. We need forming.

Of course, fixing is what we naturally want. A fix is quick. A fix is efficient. A fix lets us move on with life, pretending we are “fine.”

Formation is different.

Formation often takes time. It can be uncomfortable. Sometimes it is downright painful. While a fix seeks immediate relief, formation seeks lasting transformation.

That’s why surrender can feel so difficult. When we bring our wounds, struggles, fears, sins, and shortcomings before God, He doesn’t always remove them instantly. Sometimes He chooses to walk with us through a process. Sometimes the very thing we want taken away becomes the tool He uses to teach us dependence, perseverance, humility, or trust.

Paul understood this when he pleaded with God to remove his thorn in the flesh. Instead, God answered, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness” (2 Corinthians 12:9).

We may not always understand why certain struggles linger. Some wounds take years to heal. Some lessons are learned over a lifetime. But when we entrust these things to God, we can rest in the promise that none of it is wasted.

The hurt. The waiting. The refining. The healing.

God is using it all.

As Romans 8:28 reminds us, “in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.”

That doesn’t mean everything that happens is good. It means that God is good enough to redeem it.

The struggle we wanted fixed may become the testimony He uses to encourage someone else. The weakness we begged Him to remove may become the very place where His strength shines brightest. The wound we thought disqualified us may become evidence of His faithfulness.

So while fixing may be faster, formation is far better.

Because God is not merely interested in making our lives easier. He is committed to making us more like Christ.

And we can trust that whatever He allows, He is also redeeming. Whatever He begins, He is faithful to finish. Whatever we surrender into His hands, He will use for His glory and ultimately for our good.

In fact, when something starts to emerge in us that is not pleasing to Christ or is cultivating chaos in our hearts, minds, and spirits, we shouldn’t want it patched. We should want it surrendered.

Too often, we ask God to help us manage our anger, soothe our anxiety, lessen our bitterness, or soften our fear. But God is not interested in simply covering over the symptoms. He wants to reach the root.

David understood this when he prayed, “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me” (Psalm 51:10). He wasn’t asking for a temporary fix. He was asking for a new work to be done within him.

That is the invitation of sanctification.

We need Christ to do a complete “spring cleaning”—to clear out the hurt, the damage, the sin, the struggle, the anger, the greed, the lack of trust, etc. And then we need Him to create something new. To form us to be more like Him. To sanctify us day by day, moment by moment, so that we are becoming something new—not just slapping a bandage on the old and hoping it heals underneath.

A temporary fix will never do what an everlasting God can. A human solution is nothing compared to surrendering to divine shaping and formation.

When Scripture describes God as a potter and us as clay, it paints a beautiful picture of this process:

“But the pot he was shaping from the clay was marred in his hands; so the potter formed it into another pot, shaping it as seemed best to him” (Jeremiah 18:4).

Notice that the potter didn’t simply patch the flaw. He reshaped the vessel.

That is what God does with us.

He is not creating a patchwork quilt of cover-ups and makeshift bandages. He is making us new. As believers, we are not called to become better versions of ourselves; we are called to become more like Christ.

Sometimes that process is uncomfortable. Sometimes it requires Him to expose things we would rather hide. Sometimes He tears down what we have spent years building so that He can build something stronger in its place.

But the Potter knows what He is creating. And He has not abandoned the work.

The same God who begins the transformation is faithful to complete it (Philippians 1:6).

So maybe today, instead of asking God to fix what’s broken, we can ask Him to form what is unfinished.

To shape us. To refine us. To sanctify us.

To make us more like Him.

All we have to do is surrender it all to Him—continuously.

bytaylormcgee