2 Corinthians 5:17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.
Who doesn’t like new things? We all love new things! I even like the way things feel after I deep-clean the house! I can remember when we were putting our house on the market back in 2017 deep cleaning was an understatement. The goal, when you are trying to sell your house is to make the house look like new. In January of that year, when we put the house up for sale, we thought it did look quite a bit like new, but then we had to have the floors and some walls refinished due to a water leak, and then it truly was like new! Sometimes in order to get to the point where things are like new we have to go through a bit of a restoration period!
Life is so like that: you may think you are where you need to be, but God knows there are some areas you have overlooked so He allows you to go through a time of “restoration”, where life can get a “bit uncomfortable” for a while, but if you allow Him to, He will make everything “new”. Trust me, 2 months of having our house torn apart and put back together was quite the process and none of it was fun! In fact, when it first happened, it was devastating! I had just spent months getting the house ready to sell and we had an open house scheduled the day that a pipe broke and water destroyed so much! When you go through times of growth spiritually, it isn’t always comfortable, but it is necessary in order to become all God has created you to be!
Let’s take a look at some things you could focus on today that will help you grow in your walk with Him without all of the demo work and reconstructing! Let’s start with Galatians 5:22, “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such, there is no law.” If you have accepted Christ as your personal savior then those qualities are yours already. The question is; do you allow the Holy Spirit to exercise those in your life or do you pick and choose which qualities (fruits) you will have at a given moment, depending on who you are dealing with or what the circumstances are? Ask God today to show you if there is a “fruit” you are lacking in your life and ask Him to fill you with that quality, to change your heart, and to fill your heart and mind with His character! Be open to His leading. Allow Him to create a new you in the areas that need it. Get excited about all that He is doing and that He wants to do in your life in order to make you all you can be! God loves you and wants to help you grow, there are times it is your choice how that will happen; you can go kicking and screaming through a life experience or you can seek areas where you can grow. Personally for me, quite often it seems to take both, I don’t know of anyone who doesn’t experience challenges and heartaches in life, but will you allow those times to make you better or bitter?
So today, my challenge is that we, just for today, set aside everything that needs to change in our spouse, children, parents, neighbors, people at work, or the cashier at the store, and let’s just focus on one thing that we know God needs to change in ourselves! Let’s make our prayer for the day ~ “Lord, Change Me!” Let’s seek His face and ask Him to reveal what we need to personally change in our own lives and let Him have everyone else and see what happens!
Quote: “The journey of a thousand miles begins with 1 step.” Chinese Proverb
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