“And who would mend worn-out clothing with new fabric? When the new cloth shrinks, it will rip, making the tear worse than before. And who would pour fresh, new wine into an old wineskin? Eventually the wine will ferment and make the wineskin burst, losing everything—the wine will be spilled and the wineskin ruined. Instead, new wine is always poured into new wineskins.” Mark 2:21-22
Rip! Thats the sound that comes from placing new wine in old wineskins. We ask God for more of Him, more of His Spirit, more of His presence, but we fail to understand that the old mindset can't handle what the Spirit of God is doing.
We keep looking for the old, the old time revival, the old rugged cross, the way it used to be. Those things had value for what they accomplished in their day, but our focus can't be there anymore. Luke 5:39, Jesus said, "No one who drinks the old wine seems to want the new wine. 'The old is just fine!', they say."
I cannot tell you how many churches have remained in a state of limbo because they refuse to change out the old with the new. It's sad to see people my age and older who are content with what was. They refuse to get out of the comfort of their pews in search of new music, new worship, new wine.
Yesterday morning I awoke to a snapshot of a state map with all the highways and cities and the Lord spoke this to me: "You become so consumed with the journey that you forget your destination." Don't get so hung up on the journey to heaven that you forget what the journey should be about. Keep your focus on Jesus, the author and finisher of our race.
We've been blood bought, yet we live our lives as if we owe no one. Busy doing our own thing, going after our own goals and dreams. We buy because we want not because we need. We don't seek the Lord because we don't really want to do what He asks of us. We are the rich young ruler who turns away sadly because the Lord has asked too much of Him and revealed where his love really was.
Have mercy on me oh God! My life is not about me! My old life has been ripped from me. Thankfully! If it hadn't been, I wouldn't be where I am today. Was it painful? Every tear, every rip! If I'm not willing to let God rip the old from me, I will never have room to contain the new that He wants to put in me. My agenda doesn't matter. I must surrender and not look back.
I've surrendered my marriage for a new and better one. I've surrendered my children so that God could do the same in them as He has in me. I've surrendered my old church, my old friends, my old job, my old home because I realized that unless I leave the old, I won't be ready for the new.
"Never going back! Never going back! Never going back to the way it was!" Let me be empty and poured out, made new, when the ripping is over, may I stand in Your presence ready to be filled with the new wine of your Spirit and the new plans You daily map out for me.
Until Next Time,
Sandy G
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