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my new life


When we become a Christian and began our journey with Jesus, we knew that God wanted to change things in our lives.  He wants to make us new and to fulfill our lives with his purpose, and God is working like a demolition crew destroying a building so that something new can be built.  He is seeing to remove the old in our lives and to bring about His new and best in us.  His desire for us is new life.

Romans 6:6-7  NLT
We know that our old sinful selves were crucified with Christ so that sin might lose its power in our lives. We are no longer slaves to sin.  For when we died with Christ we were set free from the power of sin.

That is not light house cleaning or moving things around.  God is at work after our salvation to change us.  In fact this is deeper and more complicated than we might know.  Crucified is the word God used.  That means God is killing parts of us off so we can be alive in other ways.

2 Corinthians 5:17  NLT
This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun!

At the point of our salvation God began a revolution that takes place in our hearts as we surrender to Him.  It is God at work in us.  This is not us cleaning our lives up so God likes us more or so people will think we are better people.

We work with a lot of people who have problems in their lives.  Some are addicts.  Some are struggling with relationships.  Some have health or mental health problems.  In the world outside the church there are professionals who are seeking to change the way someone acts, the way they feel or the choices that person makes.

That is NOT what our God does when He begins to work in our lives.  I do wish that the changes were instant, but God helps us on our journey to become more like Jesus through time.

The way we see God and what we believe makes a big difference.  We must believe, like the first verses above say, we have been set free from sin.  We are forgiven now.  That is not in the future.  It is now and reality.  To apply that to our lives, our actions and our thinking, helps the process of what God is doing deep inside us.

God is working inside out.  He is not changing us so that people will like us.  God is not changing us so that we can do better.  God is changing us so that we can be close to Him.

God knows something about you and me.  He knew there would be an emptiness inside each of us.  He knew there was an ache that haunts every one of us.  He knew that we have a longing for purpose, beauty, significance and forgiveness.  He gives us these longings.  From Him is the best of life, but we’ve twisted it up.  God knows that because that is how He made us.

Here is the deal… God is changing us so that we can know Him.  May we find deep purpose as we apply what God says is true about us.  This is an awesome new life that only God can give!
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