Our story is constantly changing as we grow in this New Identity we have in Christ, just like a child should be constantly growing too. Listen:
“See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him.” 1Jn 3:1 NIV
Change. I don’t think anyone likes change. We humans get set in the way things are and we frown on things that disrupt our normal day to day. But the truth is, life is all about change. When we are conceived in our mother’s womb, change begins immediately and will not stop until our time on earth is over. We grow from babies, to toddlers, tweenies to adolescents, young adults to seniors and then we leave this planet. All those stages require all kinds of changes, don’t they? While we must continually change, we can praise God that He never changes. He is Perfect so He doesn’t have to change. We can hold on to His great Love as the anchor for our soul as we work with God to transform into who we were always meant to be.
There is no greater change than becoming born again. We go from being influenced by those three enemies- the devil, this world and our old self- to being increasingly influenced by the Holy Spirit. And those three enemies don’t recognize us anymore, which causes all sorts of pressure in our lives. When the devil sees the change in us, he amps up his attack on us, trying to get us to, at least, act like our old sinful self. When the world notices the changes in our choices, it tries to conform us into its own version of who humans should be. And when our old dead person stamps its foot wanting to continue feeding the Flesh, it causes all sorts of internal conflicts within us. Again, this is where we must hold on tight to our New Identity in Christ.
Because we are children of God, we must begin to reflect that we are children of God. That means living differently than we did before. But those three enemies do not know, that is, they do not acknowledge God’s authority over them, so we should expect challenges as we begin to live by God’s authority, following His way over that of those three enemies. But the challenges are not the problem…let’s wrap it up tomorrow…
Join me in memorizing 52 verses this year:
January: 1- Jn 3:16; 2- 2Co 5:17; 3- Jas 2:26; 4- Eph 2:10
February: 5- Jn 10:10; 6- Ro 6:23; 7- Rev 21:4; 8- Php 4:13
March: 9- 1Pe 5:7; 10- Jn 8:32; 11- Dt 30:19; 12- Jn 3:30; 13- 2Chron 20:3
April: 14- 2Chron 20:12; 15- 2Chron 20:15b; 16- 2Chron 20:17
May: 17- Ro 8:28; 18- 1Co 13:13; 19- Php 2:12; 20- Mt 5:4
June: 21- Lk 23:42; 22- Jas 4:7; 23- Pr 22:6; 24- Mt 5:3; 25- Jn 14:6
July: 26- Jas 2:19; 27- Dt 31:8; 28- Jn 14:15; 29- Jn 8:11
August: 30- Ro 8:1; 31- Pr 4:23; 32- Pr 18:21; 33- Ps 118:24; 34- 1Jn 4:4
September: 35- Mt 16:24; 36- Isa 53:6; 37- Ps 23:1-6
October: 38- Heb 4:12; 39- Jn 15:5
40- Jas 5:16
41- 1Jn 3:1
<>< Peace, Diane
