New Creation

A new year brings new beginnings. It’s a time when you promise yourself this is the year you’ll lose weight, you’ll budget your money, get closer to family, and reconnect with friends .You start off with good intentions and make every effort to maintain these goals but those efforts tend to fade. I’ve made these new “commitments” many times.

However there is a commitment you can make that will leave you feeling new. It’s the moment when you not only accept Jesus as your personal Savior but you embrace the new life he offers.

The Bible says “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come:[a] The old has gone, the new is here!” 2 Corinthian 5:17 (NIV)

I have read this verse many times and heard it said even more, yet they were just words like saying “How are you doing?” People ask but don’t really want to know. There was no connection between the words and real life. My life hadn’t really changed. I still had feelings of sadness, frustration, loneliness, anger and at times desperation. No matter how hard I tried nothing changed. I thought there had to be something wrong with me.

Then about a year ago I was in a bible study and one of my Pastor’s was talking about how his life changed. He didn’t hold on to his past. Yeah that had been some residual affects of choices from his past but they didn’t define him and he wasn’t making excuses he just made new choices based on who he was now , which was a child of God.

When he first said it I have to admit I was a bit angry and annoyed again they seemed like just words said and now I felt criticized like I had done something wrong like I missed the point and that’s why my life had stayed the same. I mean there were some changes but I wasn’t different. I knew I was born again and that was enough. It was enough to get me to heaven but I didn’t expect that life would be better.

Then I had a mind changing moment I didn’t make any goals to be better, to read more, to pray more. In fact I stopped trying. I started to listen more, I listened to radio ministries’, really listen to the songs I loved, and I listened to a preacher on the TV. God has this amazing way of making everyone say the same thing at the same time to prove a point and that’s when I got it.

I was new! I didn’t have to live with the mistakes from my past I could learn from them and move forward without the weight of my past. The best part was all I had to do is let things go by giving them to God. He didn’t expect that I would move on while pushing things down but he has brought things up so I can learn to let things go. I didn’t have to have all the answers just trust the One who did. I read in one of my copies of InTouch
“New Creature” refers to our position in Christ and that throughout our life, God is transforming us to be increasingly like Jesus. I am thankful for the transformation.