New Things part 2
Our key verse for this Rant series is 2 Corinthinas 5:17, "Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new." And yesterday we kind of touched on a few of these new things. Newness of life. A new name. A new heart. A new Spirit. A new commandment for a New Man. We looked at how the "new" was really the TRUE. A return to what has always been, but what has been hidden underneath all of the stuff that the world wants to pile onto us and weigh us down with. Stuff that we can (and should) lay aside. Today I want to focus on the word "behold." Because, quite frankly and quite literally, what you behold is what you become. What you magnify in your life is what manifests in you life. How you react to things determines how things go. Life is ten percent what happens to you and ninety percent how you react to you. You don't have to take things personally, even if they are. It doesn't matter if someone meant it for evil--God can use it for good. All things work together for good. But seeing is believing. Behold! All things are become new. The problem is that we don't always see it. Look at Hebrews 2:8, because it spells this problem out for us. "Thou hast put all things in subjection under his feet. For in that he put all in subjection under him, he left nothing that is not put under him. But now we see not yet all things put under him." God has put all things under His feet. Heaven is His throne and the earth is His footstool. He is all-powerful. Which doesn't mean MOST powerful. It means nothing else has any power. Because God--love--IS the power. So that happened. On the cross. That's a done deal. The problem is that even though all things are under His--OUR--feet... we don't see things that way. We always see ourselves as struggling to overcome, when the truth of the matter is... you aren't an overcomer because you CAN overcome. You are an overcomer because you HAVE overcome. You're an overcomer because JESUS overcame! The answer is in the first four words of Hebrews 2:9, "But we see Jesus..." Look at what Jesus said in John 16:33, "These things have I spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world." He overcame. He put everything beneath His feet. And because HE finished the work WE can enjoy the fruit of His labor. We can stop TRYING to overcome, and we can simply leave the old behind. We can stop trying to overcome and we can be of good cheer, knowing that He--in us, and through us, and as us--already did. What you see is what you be. If you see yourself as an overcomer who has already overcome... you'll stop struggling. You'll be able to rest. You'll be able to be still and know that HE is God. You'll be able to enjoy all of the new things that are available to you. Because you'll see it. And then you'll be it. You'll stop trying to finish a work that is already finished and you'll enjoy the gift (of eternal life) that you've been given. This life is a gift. It's not something you have to earn because it's not something you CAN earn. It was freely given. One more memory verse to close this Rant down, "Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out devils: freely ye have received, freely give" (Matthew 10:8). Jesus did what needed to be done and gave us what He wanted us to have. Now we have it... now we can BE it. Old things are passed away. Behold! All things are become new!