Renew your perspective.
Change is good, when it benefits us. The initiative needed to make some changes will require discipline and commitment. We have to be amenable to different perspectives with an eagerness to learn. Change is a willingness to start over; by putting off old habits that are futile and seeking better alternatives. Renewing our thinking will steer us to a different path.
I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. 2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable, and perfect Will of God (Romans 12).
It’s imperative to make changes for our betterment. We should live everyday with a meaningful purpose. Our purpose is what our Creator intended for our existence. Made in the image and likeness of God, we are called to present our bodies as living sacrifices, holy and acceptable to Him. Every inventor has a goal for his work. A manufacturer knows what his product should be used for; and so does our Creator. A living sacrifice is a life lived to please God, given as an offering to honor Him. When we honor God, we become His Masterpiece. Our purpose is to show forth His Greatness, as the excellent work of His Hands.
We are not created in the fashion of this world, to live up to worldly standards. We should not be conformed to the world; but to the Character of God. As we live in this world, as Children of God, we must strive to do His Will. Day by day, we should be transformed by renewing our mind; by changing our thinking to align with God’s Ways. Just as any product has to meet the manufacturer’s standards, we must adhere to God’s Standards to be effective. There are things we learn about ourselves each day; and each day we can only do better or get worse. We change behavior by a new perspective—by asking ourselves, “Is this the acceptable, perfect Will of God for me?”
9 Hide Your face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities. 10 Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. 11 Do not cast me away from Your Presence, and do not take Your Holy Spirit from me. 12 Restore to me the joy of Your salvation, and uphold me by Your generous Spirit (Psalm 51).
In order to have a fresh start, you will have to stop looking back. Go forward and leave the past where it belongs. Live in the time you have been allotted, by not dredging up the past. Repent and be transformed by God’s Grace today. If God can hide His face from your sins, by blotting them out entirely, so can you. Ask God to create in you a clean heart—a renewed heart devoid of past crud. Receive the heart transplant and allow the Spirit to give you new life. I believe the worst condition of a human soul is being cast out of God’s Presence. God desires to dwell with His Children as any earthly father does. The joy and peace of God’s Grace should motivate us to change our ways. Return to the Everlasting Father, and rest in His Love.
25 “I, even I, Am He Who blots out your transgressions for My own sake; and I will not remember your sins (Isaiah 43).”
God promises to forgive us not for our sake, but because it is what He longs to do. When He forgives, He forgets who were and sees who we will become. He is not like our loved ones or friends who never forget our failures. They may not believe that we can be transformed, because they may have been disappointed before. We don’t need to convince those who prefer to hold on to the past. It’s not important that others forget, if God has already forgotten our past. While some would have us languish in their resentment, God prefers to embrace us with His Love.
17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. 18 Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation, 19 that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation. 20 Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: we implore you on Christ’s behalf, be reconciled to God. 21 For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him (2 Corinthians 5).
As long as we are in Christ, we are a new creation. The old is gone and now everything that concerns us is all of God; our relationships, our purpose, our goals and our lives become God’s Plan for us. We should not continue to judge others by their past. God was in Christ reconciling sinners to Himself; so that they can begin to live again. Newness is only nurtured by Christ, The Son of God. We are no longer living as sinners separated from God, but have become one with Christ—have been made the Righteousness of God in Christ. We have also become ambassadors for Christ, who represent the new life in Him. We need to learn how to be sanguine about our transformation and that of others.
Just as we like to try a new look every now and then, we can be renewed each day by God’s Glory—glory that never fades. As maturing Christians, we should not be stuck in a cycle of defeat, sin and hopelessness. New year’s resolutions are good, but what good are they when they don’t have a lasting impact. Make daily resolutions instead, to be the Righteousness of God in Christ. Take off the old self and put on Christ, and don’t look back. Be renewed by a new perspective that is trained by The Word of God and maintained by The Holy Spirit. Don’t be concerned by what people retain about your past, be content with God’s Grace.
17 Now the Lord is The Spirit; and where the Spirit of The Lord is, there is liberty. 18 But we all, with unveiled faces, beholding as in a mirror the Glory of The Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by The Spirit of The Lord (2 Corinthians 3).
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