YOU'RE A NEW CREATION

Most of daily life is a grind. I even watched an interview with Hugh Jackman, a Hollywood star, in which he talked about how mundane making movies can be; how much hard work. No matter how glamorous other people’s lives may look from the outside, we all do whatever it is that we do over and over again without thinking too much about it… until, at some point, we want to erase all our mistakes and start over again. 

Whatever the reason, we’ve all been there and think: I want a fresh start.

Sometimes that thought manifests itself in a career change, a sabbatical, moving houses, changing cities, changing countries. But our career, our relationships, where we live, what we look like, they’re all great and they’re all important but, at the end of the day, they aren’t the things that make us truly happy and contented inside. They can add, they can detract, but they’re not the main thing.

Only a new heart can give you a new start. 

That’s why Jesus’ miracles were impressive, sure, but the greatest miracle He has ever performed for you and me is the fresh start He gave us when we first believed:

“From now on therefore we regard no one from a human point of view even though we once knew Christ from a human point of view we know him no longer in that way. So if anyone is in Christ there is a new creation. Everything old is passed away and see, everything has become new. All this is from God who reconciled us to himself through Christ and has given us the ministry of reconciliation… (2 Corinthians 5:16–19).”

Stop. Go back. Read that again. 

You can be a new creation. Your complete makeover awaits! Doesn’t that stir up a yearning in your heart that says, “I want that! That’s what I’ve been looking for all my life”? 

It’s like looking at the world early in the morning, just as the sun is coming up after it’s rained all night, with a sense of freshness and newness filling your lungs with the sweetness of this new creation. 

So why don’t more of us live as though the whole new creation thing was true? And what would your life look like if you did? Well?

LIFE APPLICATION QUESTIONS

• What of your past still has a hold over your life? What hurt, regret, mistake, consequence is sucking the life out of your today, and robbing you of your hope for the future?
• How much do you want to be free of that? Seriously! What things have you tried to get that fresh start? How have they worked out for you?
• Go back and read 2 Corinthians 5:16–19. Read it carefully, meticulously. What is God saying to you through His Word right now?
• Pray that the Holy Spirit will write 2 Corinthians 5:17 on your heart and make it the overriding truth in which you find your identity, day-by-day.