Being Made New with God…

“Our Lord never ‘patches up’ our natural virtues, that is, our natural traits, qualities or characteristics. He completely remakes a person on the inside.” My Utmost for His Highest, Entry of 12/30

This is certainly what God has done with me. Who I thought I was and all that I thought I was – strong and tough and in charge and right – I’m not.

God keeps teaching me to be soft and gentle, to let go and let Him, and usually to say less and not more. This is huge. None of this is who I tried to be and the things I had planned for me.

There is still a lot of the old me hanging on – fighting to be heard and fighting to be right. I say things I shouldn’t. I get hurt too easily, I get angry too quickly, words cross my lips that shouldn’t cross my lips or my mind. I push to change things and circumstances, even people – instead of giving everything over to God in prayer. But I’m learning. God is making me new. This is happening ever so slowly, because I’m a slow learner, but God doesn’t give up. His plan for my life is prevailing. (God’s Word says, confess your sins, so that you may be healed. I need more healing, so I confess and admit these shortcomings of mine. James 5:16)

God wants to do much in my life, and so I am learning to allow God to grow, feed, enrich, steep, cultivate, and prune, the things that He has planned for the new me. My job is to remember to give myself over to Him, to be amendable to the process and the good things that He ultimately, has planned for me.

“The sign that God is at work in us is that He is destroying our confidence in (our) natural virtues…” My Utmost for His Highest

We want to cling to these. What we call strength and effort (and the things we are most proud of), God calls lack of faith and rebellion on our part.

Behold, I make all things new. Revelation 21:5

God is able to make all things new. This is His plan and it will prevail. What a glorious thought this is. He is able to pull it off, in spite of us – our job is to want Him, and invite Him into our lives, and to be willing, to be made new.