“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come:
The old has gone, the new is here!” 2 Corinthians 5:17
Do you want to be the kind of a man or woman who doesn’t cause themselves or others pain and who doesn’t create problems for themselves or others? Do you want to be that new creation promised to those who believe Jesus’ truths are the way to a changed life?
Change is possible. However, there is good news and bad news.
The good news, you can start over and become the man or woman God created you to be. The bad news, something is required of you. This is bad news because many would prefer to pay someone a lot of money to fix them emotionally, physically and even spiritually. However, this quick fix often does not work out. They fall back into their old patterns because they did not address the PERSON inside them, sabotaging their efforts to become the PERSON they want to be.
People spend a lifetime developing behavioural patterns that have become their nature, their automatic responses to the life they face each day. Sometimes these responses are unkind and hurtful to others or even self-destructive. Too often, people don’t realize what is happening. There is a force within them with no compassion, love, or concern about where its response will take the person. It interferes with the person’s desire to be the person they want to be. This nature is influenced by the philosophies, the politics, the wealth, and the selfishness of the materialistic world. If that nature has become negative where anger, fear, jealousy, and so on are the factors that prompt choices, we can’t become a new creation.
We can’t become new unless we realize those negative choices are not acceptable. We can stop our negative responses only if we recognize the need to change the old ways. What happens when someone makes you mad? What happens when someone says something to you in a tone that sets your emotion rolling. What happens when you are alone, and you have a thought that starts to tear you down? It suggests you are not good enough; you need to address this task right now or, it’s better to stay in bed and forget about your problems. These responses are destructive, and may God have mercy on anyone who gets in your path when these responses boil over.
Starting a new life begins when we recognize we have developed behavioural patterns that caused us to do things we did not want to do. Creating a new life begins when we realize we are tired of being afraid, tired of being angry, and tired of being dependent on substances to get us through our day. The new creation begins when we stop wishing we would change while engaging in the patterns that ensure they will not change.
Starting a new life begins when we recognize the need to call on God’s great wisdom to face things, we never dreamed of facing.
Do you want to be the man or woman whose moral values are not compromised when you enter the world around you? We are invited to call on the one who created us to be something very different from who we are today; who said it was good when He created us and created us to live in harmony with who we are, who others are, and who He is.
Change is possible, but we need to recognize what sabotages our efforts to be men or women God designed us to be and then stop them. Put away the old and accept the new.