these past couple weeks, God has been planting seeds into my heart and some are growing deep roots as i spend time reflecting and meditating on it and examining who i am in Christ. i am a new creation in Christ... the old is gone and the new has come. satan likes to make me think that i'm not this new creation. not every day, but at times he likes to remind me of who i was and make me doubt myself. during those times, i struggle to let truth sink into my heart. but a couple weeks ago i heard of a story that made the truth of me being a new creation root deep into my heart.
a friend told me of this girl who started dating (a girl i know) and as we were talking about what kind of guy he was, she told me how this girl had a past of a true non-believer before committing her life to the Lord. so as she started dating this guy, she began telling him that she's not who he thinks she is that she has this past... and he told her that it didn't matter because in Christ she is a new creation and the past does not define who she is. Christ has redeemed her. that is mere man speaking to an equal sinner... how much more does our Savior say that to us... "I've done the work for you... it's all cleared. you don't have to keep thinking about that and dwell and muddle in that. be the new creation i have made you to be."
i love counseling and i love helping people in their struggles. one area i feel that counseling could be dangerous for believers is the fact that it could let us dwell in the old and not let us stand firm in the new. counseling lets you go to your past and dig up all the reason why it went wrong or why you are the way you are, which i think is valuable, but the danger comes if you decide to stay there. i like how my friend put it... she was told by an older wiser godly woman that when the spirit leads, it's good to go back to those places and have the spirit reveal what He needs to (because there could be new insight that He wants you know understand) and then come out... don't dwell there and stay longer than the spirit would have you. we don't have to keep going there... it's the old and we are the new in Christ.
we have to hold fast to our identity in Christ. the thing is, the world is going to ask us, "who do you think you are?" and if we don't know who we are, then we will shrivel and not stand up to the truth that Christ has made us into a new creation who has authority to speak truth, rebuke and sharpen those around us, in truth and love. i don't mean to slap people in their face, but stand firm on who you are... we who believe in the work of Jesus Christ are God's sons and daughters. we should not waver from that.
as i think about this... i have this new confidence of who ERP is!! and this new creation is continually being shaped and molded and torn apart to be made into the creation God wants me to be. i am all open for God to do this in my life!!
