All Things New part 4
When, in the beginning, God was creating things, He would always say, "It is good." Which is why I can say with confidence that God doesn't make mistakes. He never created something and then went, "Whoops!" And look at what happened after He created man (in His own image), "And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day" (Genesis 1:31). Which is to say, "It's ALL good." We were not--ARE not--scumbags who need to change from evil to good. Now don't get me wrong, man had some issues. Specifically, some heart issues. "And GOD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually" (Genesis 6:5). But this heart condition didn't sneak up on God. He knew what we were all about when He created us. But here's how WE felt about it, "Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me" (Psalm 51:10). We KNEW there was something... off. But we couldn't do anything about it. And I think that's how we still feel a lot of the time. That's why we make New Years resolutions. That's why we constantly try to "turn over a new leaf." Self-help. Self-improvement. To go back to the beginning, it's like this: "In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth" (Genesis 1:1). That's the mind and the body. That's you and me. But, "...the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters" (Genesis 1:2). We felt like something was missing, because it was too dark to see. We didn't know who WE were, because we didn't know who GOD was. But He was there. Hovering over us. Waiting until the appointed time. Which in Genesis is the very next verse, and in fulness was on the cross. "And God said, Let there be light: and there was light" (Genesis 1:3). God stepped into our darkness with the light of the world. He gave us His only begotten Son so that we might know that we ARE His beloved Son! So that we might BE who we ARE instead of trying to be someone we're not. You can't be who you are unless you know who you are. And if you're not good enough to begin with--the lie that the sepent hissed into Eve's ear--you'll never be able to jump through enough hoops to earn something that can't be earned. Luckily, as I mentioned, that was a LIE. We ARE good enough. Complete in Him. And when God answered that prayer in Psalm chapter 51, He did it by circumcising our hearts. By cutting away the flesh of human effort. By showing us that what we do doesn't make us who we are. Who we are dictates what we do. It's not external. It's internal. Living from the inside-out. Filling ourselves to overflowing with what is already--and always has been--true about ourselves. So that it comes out. Naturally. A new heart is simply the revelation that it is God's heart beating in our chests. It was always there, it was just buried by the world, and by the flesh, and by our human effort to try to DO in order to BE. God has, and is, and will, make all things new. Starting with you. Starting with the heart that beats with love in your chest. Starting with the Holy Spirit dwelling in your body. The Spirit of truth. The Spirit of love. A new love. An agape love. A God love!