Many people make New Year resolutions at the
beginning of a New Year and the most common resolution is "New Year, New
Me". People solemnly swear that they will not repeat the mistakes of the
previous year, they will not fall victim to the deceptions of the previous
year, and they will be so radically transformed that people who knew them
before the New Year will be shocked at the changes. While all of this is good,
in most cases, the people who make these resolutions only implement those
changes for the first few weeks of the New Year. By the time February rolls
around, the same people who swore how they will change will be back in the same
destructive patterns of the former year.
Why do these changes not last for the
year or better yet, the remainder of the individual's life? The changes are not
long-term changes because by our own power, we can only mask parts of our
former selves. We don't truly change; instead, we suppress our habits and
attempt to start fresh. As a result, while we might be able to live a
"changed" life for a few weeks, the remnants of our old selves will
always be around, ready to resurface at any given time. This is likened to
putting on new clothes on top of dirty clothes. If you do not remove the dirty
clothes first, you will still smell despite the new expensive designer clothes.
Only God can take us as we are, break us down, and mold us
into His image and His likeness that we may fulfill the purpose He has given
us.
"But now, O Lord, You are our Father; We
are the clay, and You are our potter; And we are all the work of Your
hand."- Isaiah 64:8
To change, we need to be vulnerable in the hands
of the Almighty. As stated in the above scripture, we are the clay and God is
the potter. One important property of clay is that, with a little water, it is
very flexible. This flexibility allows the potter to shape that clay into
anything he/she desires. When we release ourselves as clay to God the Potter,
God molds us into that which He intended us to be. In the book of Genesis God
said, " Let Us make man in Our own image, according to Our own
likeness" (Genesis 1: 26). God changes us to be more like Him. He will not
leave our dirty clothes on and clothe us with new things. Rather God's change
removes the former and replaces it with something newer and better. In
His Word the Lord said:
"Then I will sprinkle clean water on
you, and you shall be clean. I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and
from all your idols. I will give you a new heart and put a new
spirit within you. I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give
you a heart of flesh. I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to
walk in my statues, and you will keep my Judgments and do them. "-Ezekiel
37:24-27
God is ready to change us but we must be ready
to allow Him to do the work. The transformation of clay from its raw ingredient
and into a beautiful sculpture is undeniably radical and noticeable by
everyone, but that clay had to be pressed by the Potter, molded by the Potter, and placed under intense pressure and fire, before any valuable changes are seen.
Unlike the “changes” that we undergo that last only a few days or weeks, when
clay has been transformed by fire, the process is irreversible. The new
radically beautiful sculpture can never return into its former starting
ingredient because its chemical and physical properties change with it. This is
the finishing work of the cross. Once we experience the change of Christ, we
cannot return back to our former selves because Christ irreversibly changes our
physical and spiritual properties. The change is permanent. Release yourselves
to God and let Him change you permanently so that next year, there won’t be
another “New Year, New Me”.
Yorkamazing <3
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| First Sunday of 2015 |
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T.M.V- 2 Corinthians 5:17
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