Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come. 1 Corinthians 5:17
All of us remember the day we were saved. Something happened inside that brought you to the point where you realized your sinfulness and need for a Savior. Maybe it was a friend, or a Sunday church service where it seemed the sermon was written just for you. Perhaps it was life circumstances that brought you to a place of desperation or brokenness. Whatever the circumstances, you surrendered your life to the Lord and accepted Him into your heart. You tasted the new life in Christ and experienced joy and the peace of being reconciled to God. You were excited, and filled with expectation for this new relationship.
Then life came calling. The excitement faded. The joy and the peace were replaced with the old worries and troubles that plagued before. What happened? This wasn’t what you were told the Christian life would be like. Were supposed to be overcomers not mere survivors.
I believe this to be the story of many believers. Those we sit with on Sunday and fellowship with at bible studies and small groups. This was my story and maybe its yours. But, this does not have to be our whole story. The mistake so many of us make, is that we don’t understand when we received Christ we also received new life. However, we have to learn how to put off the old life and put on the new one.
Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. Romans 6:4
The best way to begin this exchange, is to allow God to change our thinking.
We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ.. 2 Corinthians 10:5
Many of the negative thoughts and emotions we experience are rooted in incorrect thinking. We are faced with situations every day where we must choose how we will react. For example, someone is rude to you, will you become offended and respond out of the old man with something rude back? Or, will you allow the Holy Spirit to empower you to respond out of the new man, forgive the person, and handle the situation as God leads? It’s circumstances just like this that teach us how to exchange old for new.
God has already equipped us with all we need to walk in the new man. When we asked Him into our hearts He sent His Holy Spirit to live within us and to empower us to walk in the new man. By applying the Word, and asking the Holy Spirit to empower us we can learn to leave the old man in the grave where Jesus put him, and walk confidently in the new.
Leave a Reply