New Things part 5
The key to experiencing the new things that are available to us--a new life, a new name, a new nature, a new commandment for a new man--is letting go of the old. Just walking away from the things that used to hold you down. Not fighting with them. The only fight left after Jesus won the war to end all wars on the cross is the good fight of faith. Laying hold of the gift we've already been given. But if our hands are full of what the world has forced on us, we can't lay hold of anything, well, new. If you're always trying to earn something, you rob yourself from experiencing and enjoying the gift you've been given. So let go and let God. Remember in Hebrews we saw that all things are under our feet, but we don't always see it that way. But. We DO see Jesus. If we look for Him. Jesus said, "A I say unto you, Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find: knock, and it shall be opened unto you" (Luke 11:9). Sometimes I think we have not because we ask not. We don't find, because we don't look. We become... if not comfortable, then at least accustomed to... settling for less. We just take what the world forces on us. We try to do what the old saying says, "When life gives you lemons, make lemonade." And I can see some wisdom in this. Do the best you can with what you have wherever you are. However, I can see MORE wisdom in simply not taking what the world has to offer. When life gives you lemons, realize and understand that you don't have to take what life gives you. There is a more excellent way. There is something else available to you. It's called the Kingdom of God. It's called ABUNDANT life. And what makes life so abundant... is love. The difference, in a word, between death and life... is love. No love, no life. Know love, know life. They aren't just connected, they are the same thing. So in order to experience what is available to us--what has been given to us--we need to let go of everything else. This life can't be truly experienced unless and until we bury that old man (and all of his baggage) in the watery grave of baptism. Unless and until we come forth out of the old. That's what Lazarus did when Jesus called for him. The dead came to life by leaving the grave. And we know what a rut is, right? Just a grave with the ends kicked out. We can keep going through the motions. We can keep running around in circles on the hamster wheel... or we can step into our EPIC (Eternal Purpose In Christ) destiny! We can be who the world tells us to be (while trying and failing to be someone we're not), or we can be who our heavenly Father says we are: His beloved Son in whom He is well pleased! Your life flows from your identity. What you believe is what you do. Your actions flow from your faith. And faith works by love. If you know and believe you are loved... everything lines up from there. If you know and believe you are loved... you can love. And that's the secret of life. That's your purpose. That's your destiny. To receive the love that God has given you, and release it to an unsuspecting world. All you have to do is receive it and release it. Let go of the old and embrace the new. Let what's really inside you come out by knowing and believing that it's in there!