And I will give you a new heart, and I will put a new spirit in you. I will take out your stony, stubborn heart and give you a tender, responsive heart.
— Ezekiel 36:26 (NLT)
Jesus did not die and rise again so that you and I could be improved or patched up. He came to do away with the old you – that stony, stubborn heart – and to make you new with a tender and responsive heart.
When you make Jesus your Lord, you are then a new creation. That old you was crucified, dead and buried with Jesus. You rose up with Jesus, new and completely free from that old sin nature. What God says about you in 2 Corinthians 5:17 is true. So you might say, “Then why do I still do things like I used to such as get angry, depressed, anxious, worry, have fear?”
Because God says we must renew our mind to the new person we now are. Your heart now hears Him, desires Him and wants to follow Him, but you have to acknowledge that you are a new person. And you have to learn what it means to live in Christ. Even though you are a completely NEW person, you don’t automatically walk as one.
So, don’t walk this new path by gritting your teeth or grinding out your path step by step. That is using effort to become whom you think you are not. You already are the new person! It comes through accepting and embracing the picture God has of you. You must picture yourself, using your imagination to see you, living as the new person.
When feelings of self pity, rejection, or moments of agitation overtake you, you must remind yourself that you are no longer that person. Take a deep breath and send them away. Don’t allow them to rule you and don’t wallow in them. Rejoice that you are not that person anymore. Put on the new you!
In order to live as the new person you now are, you have to first learn who that is – who God says you are.
Choose to believe it and then step into that person. It’s exciting to realize you don’t have to fix you because you are completely new.
“Remember Me ~ The was throbs with life in the is”
Heaven To Earth