Most of us dream of being something different than who we are. We see ourselves as something less than we would like to be. Too often, we listen to what the world says we should be. But it is that blessed soul who looks to God for their inspiration of who they should be.
Every new day is a chance to be a new you. “Then Moses said, ‘Consecrate yourselves today to the Lord, that He may bestow on you a blessing this day…’” (Exodus 32:29 NKJV).
The Word of God calls us to live a life higher than we do. This is so much more than being set free from the bondage of sin. It is a calling that pierces deep into our soul that we should walk with grace and mercy to all those around us.
The higher faith has more to do with your attitude than your intellect. “Let your gentle spirit [your graciousness, unselfishness, mercy, tolerance, and patience] be known to all people. The Lord is near.” (Philippians 4:5 AMP).
Anyone who has tried to become a new person on their own power quickly finds out that the limit of where they can get to on their own power is their own strength. I will admit that some are stronger than others, but none are stronger than themselves.
In your own strength, you are the limit of you. “Seek the Lord and His strength; seek His face continually” (1 Chronicles 16:11 NASB).
If you try to be a “new you” using the power of you, then you will fail. You can only take yourself as far as you are able to go on your own, and you’ll find yourself pitifully held in the hands of you. People go a lifetime struggling on their own and remain on their own.
Don’t let your life be the limit of you. “For by You I can run through an army. By my God I can jump over a wall” (2 Samuel 22:30 NLV).
To be a “new you” requires a different power working in you. That power is the life of Jesus Christ that the Holy Spirit can put within you. If you’re really saved, then you’re really different, and your life will surely show it. Yet there are many who are barely saved and barely changed because they barely let the Lord help them.
Let today be the day you let Christ rule in your life. “My old self has been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. So I live in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me” (Galatians 2:20 NLT).
The Lord will do His part when you do your part. His part is to change you, and your part is to let Him. You can know that the Lord can change you, but until you let Him, the change will never happen. It is your strength that is the problem, and your pride that is the reason.
Never squander the potential of Christ in you. The problem is never that you are not strong enough but that you are not weak enough. Natural strength is the hindrance to spiritual power. The Lord told Paul, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness” (2 Corinthians 12:9 NKJV).
The pride in your “old you” is a hindrance to the Lord transforming you into the “new you.” Our natural inclination is to strive harder, and it’s in our striving that we become the hindrance to what the Lord could do. Until you get out of the way, you’re in the way.
Let God take you higher than yourself. “Glory belongs to God, whose power is at work in us. By this power he can do infinitely more than we can ask or imagine” (Ephesians 3:20 GW).
Get into prayer with the Lord and ask Him to show you the “new you” that He wants you to be. Seek His will in the Word of God, and you are surely on the path of where He wants to take you. Write down those things the Lord would have you change in your life right now.
The closer you are to God, the more you’ll know His will for your life. “Rescue me from my enemies, Lord, for I hide myself in you. Teach me to do your will, for you are my God; may your good Spirit lead me on level ground” (Psalm 143:9-10 NIV).
Never object or discount what the Lord wants to do in you. What seems impossible is possible when the power of God is working within you. Don’t ask Him how He will change you, but only ask Him to help you along the way.
The question isn’t if God can help you, but will you let Him. “With all your heart you must trust the LORD and not your own judgment. Always let him lead you, and he will clear the road for you to follow” (Proverbs 3:5-6 CEV).
You can be a “new you.” The words of Jesus are not impossible unless we try to live them on our own. Jesus never intended for us to live higher on our own, but by His life in us through the power of the Holy Spirit. The “new you” is Christ in you.
Christ in you is the best version of yourself. “Test yourselves and find out if you really are true to your faith. If you pass the test, you will discover that Christ is living in you. But if Christ isn’t living in you, you have failed” (2 Corinthians 13:5 CEV).
Blessings to you,
Paul Balius
You, Paul, write, ” Most of us dream of being something different than who we are. We see ourselves as something less than we would like to be. Too often, we listen to what the world says we should be. But it is that blessed soul who looks to God for their inspiration of who they should be.” The whole of your post is wonderfully written.
I would appreciate the privilege of sharing a few very brief paragraphs of what I believe we should regard ourselves as beautifully being in the course of duly regarding the Being of our beautiful and beneficent Creator. From this foundational footing, I attend our calling to lay hold of that for which Christ has indeed laid hold of us.
In Christ, our Creator, each of us is profoundly significant. We cannot but faintly fathom the sublime, divine depths of His concern and compassion, compared to that which shall be so richly revealed in Heaven of His absolutely limitless love, His constant care for as individuals, before absenting our bodies.
Not only did the One All-Glorious Triune God, Love Almighty, the Holy One and the Just, deeply delight in designing our vastly unique individuality and futurality, but as omniscient, Sovereign Lord of our personal histories, we are impeccably His infinitely ingenious, wondrously wise and lavishly loved workmanship, faithfully forged in the fervency and fury of fire, not at all cheaply conformed to the character of Christ.
Complete in Christ, we are no less than His divinely autonomous, actualizing and consummating idea from Heaven, which idea was wholly His, even ever before blessedly breathing us into being and causing our conception in our mother’s womb, as colossally cherished, eons without end.
Such good words you wrote, and I think so important that people would read them. I especially was drawn to these words: “In Christ, our Creator, each of us is profoundly significant.” Too often people cannot see just how valuable and loved they are from our heavenly Father. The more we see how much He really loves us, the more we realize how wonderful He really is.