DaySpring Daily Word of Inspiration: 2 Corinthians 5:17 – Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.

I LOVE THIS SCRIPTURE!!! Can you hear the excitement in my typing? Hehehe. Seriously speaking this passage lays out a basic spiritual truth that we over look when we come into a real life of repentance through Jesus Christ. I pray you get this today because it is so simple but profound that we can easily skip over its important image of what we look like to God as we begin a new life in Christ.

There is the old saying (and even current saying) that people can’t change and you are the way you are. Well I will submit to you today that this isn’t true at all! This is beautiful how God illustrates the gift of being a new creation in Christ, if we accept His sacrifice for our sins. Check this out: No matter your age currently, we all were born into this world as sinners (trust me on this, WE ALL ARE!). From infancy to now we grew up in the teachings of our parents (in the best way they could) some with spiritual knowledge and some not. Either way we grew up making our own decisions about life; how it’s supposed to be lived, what we will believe in and if we’ll even have God on our minds at all. Now of course some of us got great spiritual leadership and instruction that we held onto into adulthood and it has continued to be our way of living, but for the majority of us – including myself, we strayed from the path of righteousness. All of the junk that the world could offer, we filled ourselves up with only in the end to still feel empty inside. We lived the way we wanted to and did what we wanted to do. We lived for ourselves and with our own ambitions in mind.

Now here comes the beautiful heart and love of God. He sends His Son Jesus to die for our sins; for all that would believe in Him (Jesus) and accept His blood offering, we would be saved – receiving salvation from the punishment that is to come for unrepentant sin. In being united with Christ in His death, Jesus took our old sinful self; the sinful person we grew into and buried it in the grave with the sins of the world. Then He rises from the dead with all power as the first born of new creations in his gloried body. The wonderful mercy in His rising is that He made you rise to a new live in Him when He rose. He made you a new creation in Him too! This is where bible tells us that we are not our own anymore – because it is true (1 Cor. 6:19-20). When we make that willing connection and acceptance of Christ, there is no old you any longer. You have officially been reborn! So how does that in the spirit realm? You are a baby yet again; but in God’s sight. We all know how you treat babies, right? You feed them, clothe them, provide for them, instruct them, help them to grow up, and love them beyond your strength. To grow in this life our parents provided the essentials necessary for us to be strong and healthy. Well this is exactly what God does with us as infants in Christ. To grow in spiritual knowledge and integrity He provides his nutritious Word for us to feed on (2 Peter 2:2). Just as a father and mother would pour information into their own child, so God pours all of His spiritual information into us! Instead of being made in the likeness of a human father, God makes us into His likeness – as exampled by His Son Jesus Christ. Essentially, in Christ we are new born babies being taught how to live, how to act, how to treat others, how to prioritize, how love, how speak, how to walk, what to be concerned about, how to honor our Father (in heaven), and a host of other things – and it’s all in the bible!!

It doesn’t matter if you 21 or 86, we all can have a new beginning in Christ. We can all be reborn and poured into with the things that will nourish our souls and mature us in godly principles (things that matter to God) for eternity. None of us will ever be perfect and stop sinning while we’re in the flesh, however, if we are taught how to avoid certain sins, not put ourselves in situations that would compromise the gospel, and be schooled in how to rely on God and His power in faith in His word, we can be more blameless; more excellent in living a live that God would/could be proud to say, “well done my good and faithful servant”. We were all babies once and how we were raised shaped our lives. Today we pray that you allow yourself to be a baby again in Christ and allow His words and teachings to shape a new life He has for you. Get rid of that old you, Christlikeness looks so much better on you and is so much better for you! In Jesus’ name, AMEN!