Proximity Doesn’t Equal Transformation

Ever felt stuck spiritually even after years of church sermons, Bible study, and worship? You're not alone. In today’s micro-episode, we tackle a sneaky truth: proximity to the truth doesn’t mean formation by the truth. We’re trying out a new micro-learning format — short, powerful reviews and reflections to help the teachings sink deeper, reframe your thinking, and spark real transformation, not just information overload! 

Truth doesn’t change us by osmosis; it requires our cooperation, our slowing down, and our surrender. Today, Michele walks you through a couple of reflective questions to spot where you might be “near” the truth but not yet formed by it, and then ends with a prayer inviting the Holy Spirit to shape you from the inside out. Join us for this short, reflective episode to help launch your week with clarity and fresh fire.

Chapters

• 1:30 Today’s Kus Word
• 3:11 Questions for Reflection
• 3:53 Closing Prayer

Transcript

Michele: 0:00

It's Monday, April 28th, and this is Today's Kus Word. I'm Michele Kus, your spiritual growth coach, popping in on your Monday for a surprise visit and a quick Kus Word to center your soul and launch you into this week with grace and truth and a little holy fire. So happy Monday, friends. I hope you had a wonderful weekend and I want to try something new this week. I dropped a good 30 minute teaching on Friday and I am actually a big believer in micro learning, which is learning in short, little nuggets, and I think it's just easier for people to retain information that way. So this week I'm going to try something new. I'm going to drop some short episodes on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday that are just little review nuggets from the longer teaching that I dropped on Friday. So if you listened to that one and then you had a busy full weekend like I did, it's easy to forget a lot of the things that you heard on Friday. So this week we're just going to have some short episodes and review some of the main points from Friday's longer episode. And so today the Kus Word that I want to share with you is this: Proximity to the truth doesn't always mean formation by the truth.

Michele: 1:42

So, remember, you can sit in church for 20 years and never really be spiritually transformed. You can memorize all the scripture, you can sing all the worship songs and sit through all the sermons but still feel spiritually stuck. Because proximity to the truth doesn't mean formation by the truth. Just because you're near the truth doesn't necessarily mean that it's getting inside of you. Truth doesn't actually change us automatically. It doesn't happen by proximity or osmosis. It actually happens by our cooperation and our surrender to it. Truth changes us when we slow down long enough to let it get inside of us and saturate our hearts and reframe our thinking and reshape who we are and our habits. So it's not about hearing more stuff. It's about surrendering to the truth and letting it get deeply inside of us. The goal is we want to be formed spiritually formed and not just informed. We want to be formed, not just informed.

Michele: 3:17

So here's a couple questions for you to think about today. Where in your life have you settled for being near the truth, but maybe not letting it really get deeply inside you? And where might God be inviting you to slow down, to linger a little, to listen for his voice and to let that truth sink in deeply? Where are those places in your life? So those are a couple of things for you to think about today, and let me pray for you as you launch out into your day. Holy Spirit, we don't want to just hover around your truth, we want to be changed by it. So slow us down, form us, not just inform us. Saturate our hearts with what is real and what is eternal. Let your word take root in us today. Shape us from the inside out. We say yes to whatever you want to do in us today. We pray this in the beautiful name of Jesus. Amen. Thanks for joining me on this quick micro episode and I'll see you again tomorrow.