God Speaking

“You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.”

(Ephesians 4:22 – 24)

When I was, a child growing up in Australia, the beginning of the new school year coincided with the beginning of the new calendar year, so everything started afresh together.  As Christmas falls in the summer in the Southern Hemisphere our holidays stretched over a delightful 6-week period of lazy days on the beach and mostly running bare foot through our friends’ gardens with abandon, not really thinking about the year to come, but the start of the school year brought about a very distinct change in perspectives. Suddenly we needed to be focused, the lazy days of just indulging our selves, were now to finish, minds now had encompass new subjects to be studied at school, life assumed a new purpose.

As this new year arrives I began to reflect on what this means as being children of God and realised that newness in all its forms is a part of our walk with the Lord. Paul talks about “putting on a new self” which made me think again about my childhood. In Australia, all school children wore uniforms and of course proper school shoes, no runners, or flip-flops in those days. After all those carefree days of not wearing shoes, made one very aware of what new shoes felt like! Putting on our new selves for the Lord may also make us aware of different life styles.

Paul also tells us that putting on this new self means discarding all those things that hinder us so we can grow in the knowledge of who our Lord is.

“…since you have taken off your old self, with its practices and have put on the new self which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator.” (Colossians 3: 9 – 10)

New year resolutions abound at this time of the year, and it’s a time of looking back to remember the good and the bad of the year we are leaving. Many of us wish we could turn back the clock somehow and change some of our actions. The wonder and the joy of belonging to the Lord is that we have incredible help to change at least our attitudes and not to be bound by what we have allowed to take over our lives. We can look honestly at ourselves and state quite plainly what we want to see changed in our lives and the Lord reassures us that when we do this, a remarkable change takes place and we become new creatures.

“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come.” (2 Corinthians 5: 17)

So, we can joyfully greet this new year knowing we leave the old behind and allow the Lord to change us so we reassemble his image.

“and put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator.” (Colossians 3:10)