 Hope you had a good week and you are learning to enjoy the benefits of the new life you have been given in Christ. How is your closet cleaning going? Have you been able to get rid of any of those grave clothes? It is a process.
Ever noticed how important your focal point is in determining the outcome in any given situation? As we continue on our journey to live for His glory, focusing on our future and our finish is critical to our progress. Paul understood the importance of keeping his eyes on the prize:...but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus - Phil 13b-14. Paul refused to allow his past successes or failures to impede his progress toward his goal of knowing and growing in Christ. He focused on his future in the Lord. Unfortunately, far too many of us spend way too much time looking in the rear view mirror, allowing our past failures and disappointments to haunt us and hinder our spiritual progress. We can even hold someone's past against them, holding them hostage to an unforgiving spirit. We need to remove statements like " if only I had, if only he or she would have..., if only I had never .." from our thinking. These if statements need to be replaced with: if it had not been for the Lord who is on our side...-Ps 124:1a. Constantly reliving ours or someone else's past failures leads to weights like guilt, shame, fear, regret and bitterness forming in our lives. Any of these sound familiar? We are encouraged to lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith - Heb 12b-13a. The Christians in the Book of Hebrews kept looking back and were in danger of drifting so the writer encouraged them to rid themselves of things hindering them and to keep their eyes fixed on Jesus. What is it about your past that is haunting to you? Are the weights of guilt, shame, or regret hindering you from experiencing joy? We need to be reminded : There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit - Rom 8:1. Nothing about our past can condemn us. Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth - Rom 8:33. No one can accuse us. There is no condemnation and no accusation that can be brought against us that can deprive us of our place in Christ Jesus. I am so glad we serve a God who hath not dealt with us after our sins; nor rewarded us according to our iniquities; instead, as far as the east is from the west, so far hath He removed our transgressions from us - Ps 103:10,12. Let's stop allowing our past to haunt and hinder us. It's time to let the failures of the past go and to release those we are holding hostage. Take the weights off, set the captives free and look to Jesus ! pressing toward the mark together, Diane p.s. this week work on forgetting those things that are behind and laying aside the weights of guilt, shame, fear, regret, and an unforgiving spirit. If you holding someone hostage because of their past, release them. If you find yourself stuck because of the past seek a godly Christian counselor to help.  TRANSFORMED A new year, a new you, a new life, and a new look. Yes we have been given a new life by Jesus Christ (... I have come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly - John 10:10b). In order to actually start living this new and exciting life, we must first be aware that we have been given it, and then we have to acknowledge and accept it (Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature; old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new - II Cor 5:17).
Our new spiritual life requires an entirely new look. This new life comes with a new perspective, new attitudes, and a new set of values (And be renewed in the spirit of your mind; And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness - Eph 4:23-24). Before we can sport our new look, the old one must be discarded. The attitudes and values from our life before Christ do not fit our new life (That ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts -Eph 4:22). Lying, stealing, uncontrolled anger and corrupt communication don't fit in our new life. These represent the grave clothes from our old life, which has been declared dead. (Wherefore putting away lying, speak every man truth with his neighbor...Be angry and sin not..Let him that stole steal no more...Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth...- Eph 4:25-29 and Let all bitterness , and wrath and anger, and clamour and evil speaking be put away from you, with all malice - Eph 4:31; But now ye also put off all these; anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communication out of your mouth. Lie not one to another, seeing that ye have put off the old man with his deeds - Col 3:8-9). The old life is replaced with our new life and the grave clothes need to be replaced with the garments of grace (And have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him - Col 3:10. Put on therefore. as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, long-suffering; Forbearing one another, and forgiving one another, if any man have a quarrel against any: even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye - Col 3:13). Our new look for the new life includes things like mercy, a forgiving spirit, humility, and kindness. The garment that completes and pulls our new look together is love (And above all these things put on charity, which is the bond of perfectness - Col 3:14). It's a new year, we have a new life and daily we must choose to rock our new look and rid ourselves of the old. We have to choose the garments of grace instead of the old grave clothes, which by the way, no longer look good on us because they don't fit our new life. Daily as we dress we must look into the mirror of the Word to help us put on the garments of grace. We have to stop seeing our grave clothes as an option; otherwise, in a heated situation we will reach back for those old attitudes and old ways of handling conflict. The longer we look into the mirror of the Word the more uncomfortable we will become with wearing grave clothes. Time to clean out the closet. journeying together, Diane (p.s. this week let's continue working on recognizing the old man, reckoning him dead, and select one piece of grave clothing that you wear often put it away once and for all; and, replace it with the appropriate garment of grace) |
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