Jesus can help you find the best version of yourself

If you were to imagine the best version of yourself, what, or who, would you imagine?

I don’t have much trouble thinking up the best version of myself. She’s kind, funny, easy going but still passionate in all the right places; she’s supportive and encouraging to her loved ones; she forgives easily and keeps calm in tense situations…. The list could go on. I do however have a very hard time being the best version of myself. My own emotions, bodily limitations, troublesome thoughts and even selfish inclinations seem to keep getting in the way of being who I would really like to be.

Do you know that Jesus has a vision of you, even better than you can imagine, that He desires to form and grow you into?

There are at least three ways the Bible speaks of Jesus helping us find and be the best version of ourselves.

Firstly, Jesus took the spiritual consequences of our sins for us by dying on the cross. Jesus willingly took the punishment for us so we can be forgiven and freed from all the ways we mess up and fall short. If we trust in what Jesus did, we don’t need to live as guilty or ashamed anymore. We can live knowing we are loved and declared innocent and that makes a big difference to how we treat ourselves and others. Here’s two Bible verses explaining this, have a look at 2 Corinthians 5:17-21 and 1 Peter 3:18.

This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun! And all of this is a gift from God, who brought us back to Himself through Christ. And God has given us this task of reconciling people to Him. For God was in Christ, reconciling the world to Himself, no longer counting people’s sins against them. And He gave us this wonderful message of reconciliation. So we are Christ’s ambassadors; God is making His appeal through us. We speak for Christ when we plead, “Come back to God!” For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ.

Christ suffered for our sins once for all time. He never sinned, but He died for sinners to bring you safely home to God. He suffered physical death, but He was raised to life in the Spirit.

Secondly, Jesus sends His Holy Spirit to all who trust Him. By His Spirit, Jesus is guiding, comforting and transforming His people to be the glorious version He created them to be. To be all the things I mentioned above that I aspire to… kind, forgiving, encouraging and so much more. We are not alone in an effort to be better versions of ourselves, Jesus is with us by the Holy Spirit to help us in this. See John 14:25-26 and 2 Corinthians 3:17-18.

I [Jesus Christ] am telling you these things now while I am still with you. But when the Father sends the Advocate as my representative—that is, the Holy Spirit—He will teach you everything and will remind you of everything I have told you.

For the Lord is the Spirit, and wherever the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. So all of us who have had that veil removed can see and reflect the glory of the Lord. And the Lord—who is the Spirit—makes us more and more like Him as we are changed into His glorious image.

Thirdly, there is a time in the future when those who trust Jesus will be completely and perfectly transformed into the best version of themselves. This life and world is not going to last forever. There is a time when it will all come to an end. Those who have rejected forgiveness through Jesus will be judged and punished by God. However, those who trust in Jesus will be forgiven and made perfect in every way, physically, spiritually and emotionally. To get a glimpse of this read Philippians 3:18-21 and 2 Corinthians 5:1-5.

For I have told you often before, and I say it again with tears in my eyes, that there are many whose conduct shows they are really enemies of the cross of Christ. They are headed for destruction. Their god is their appetite, they brag about shameful things, and they think only about this life here on earth. But we are citizens of heaven, where the Lord Jesus Christ lives. And we are eagerly waiting for Him to return as our Savior. He will take our weak mortal bodies and change them into glorious bodies like his own, using the same power with which He will bring everything under His control.

For we know that when this earthly tent we live in is taken down (that is, when we die and leave this earthly body), we will have a house in heaven, an eternal body made for us by God Himself and not by human hands. We grow weary in our present bodies, and we long to put on our heavenly bodies like new clothing. For we will put on heavenly bodies; we will not be spirits without bodies. While we live in these earthly bodies, we groan and sigh, but it’s not that we want to die and get rid of these bodies that clothe us. Rather, we want to put on our new bodies so that these dying bodies will be swallowed up by life. God Himself has prepared us for this, and as a guarantee He has given us His Holy Spirit.

Would you like to be the best version of yourself? A perfect version even? Jesus has the desire and power to help you become that if you trust in Him.

Prayer: Dear Jesus, I want to be better. I want to be the best version of myself. The one you want me to be. Please help me to trust in your forgiveness and power to transform me. Amen.

Acknowledgement: This article was sourced from Outreach Media, Sydney, Australia.
Images and text © Outreach Media 2025

Posted, December 2024