Reality TV loves a good makeover. Contestants, who start the show as regular Joe’s and Alice’s - nice enough but lacking the X-Factor – are transformed in a single day by on-trend style gurus. Things will never be the same again. 

Hair is coiffured. ‘Target’ is replaced with ‘Sass & Bide’. Subtle shades of makeup suddenly reveal latent beauty. Add the accessories and shazam – we have a new person. Who’d have thought! It’s a complete transformation. Now they definitely have ‘The X-Factor’.

And it could happen to you. Your life could be better, in a moment. All you need is a makeover.

It’s built on an incredibly attractive premise – change happens best from the ‘Outside In’. Get a makeover, lose weight, have surgery, drive that car, get that job, live in that suburb, visit that city, ditch that husband – and you will be a new person. Life will be better.

Does it work? Not in my experience. Deep-rooted habits seem nearly impossible to change. It doesn’t matter how much circumstances change, it’s still the same old me. I keep repeating the same patterns of behaviour and reaping the same rewards.

We don’t change from the ‘Outside In’, as much as from the ‘Inside Out’. Change is our responsibility, not someone else’s or by means of some external factor, and it’s incredibly hard.

And so, I’m led once again to give thanks to God for the gift of his Son. Those who trust in Jesus are clothed with his righteousness (now that’s a makeover), filled with his Spirit, and so begins lasting change from the ‘Inside Out’.