Live As the New Not the Old
Sometimes
we just don’t realize the “new us” and what we have been truly given.
2 Peter 1:5-9
MSG 5-9 So don’t lose a minute in building on what you’ve been given,
complementing your basic faith with good character, spiritual understanding,
alert discipline, passionate patience, reverent wonder, warm friendliness, and
generous love, each dimension fitting into and developing the others. With
these qualities active and growing in your lives, no grass will grow under your
feet, no day will pass without its reward as you mature in your experience of
our Master Jesus. Without these qualities you can’t see what’s right before
you, oblivious that your old sinful life has been wiped off the books.
NLT 5 In view of all this, make every effort to respond to God’s
promises. Supplement your faith with a generous provision of moral excellence,
and moral excellence with knowledge, 6 and
knowledge with self-control, and self-control with patient endurance, and
patient endurance with godliness, 7 and
godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love for
everyone.
8 The
more you grow like this, the more productive and useful you will be in your
knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9 But
those who fail to develop in this way are shortsighted or blind, forgetting
that they have been cleansed from their old sins.
The
part that actually jumped out at me today was the phrase “passionate patience”
or “patient endurance”. As I look at that phrase, I realize, that WE cannot do
this on a regular basis on our own. In our own natural sin nature – we are not
able to do this. It is ONLY with the gift that the Lord gave us in Jesus, that
we can do this in every situation with every person!
The
sad thing is, that a lot of us don’t SEE this gift for/to/in us! Yes, even
believers, Christians, people who say/think/feel that they are following Jesus –
we do not see these gifts He has given us and ARE in us! Not by our strength,
but by the Holy Spirit that lives in us. THAT is the only way we can have these
character traits!
The
very last line, really got me too. That a lot of us just go about our day,
living life and forget, or don’t really come to the understanding of this
truth. Instead, we can’t see it because we keep “living” in our old nature –
our old sin habits. “NLT 9 But
those who fail to develop in this way are shortsighted or blind, forgetting
that they have been cleansed from their old sins. MSG
Without these qualities you can’t see what’s
right before you, oblivious that your old sinful life has been wiped off the
books.”
Do you see that?! Our old sins are “wiped off the
books” “have been cleansed”!!
Oh my goodness!! The MEF (mind’s eye flash) that
just flashed before my eyes: do you remember those commercials about some
special cleaning liquid, that they would dip very old and very tarnished
silverware into? Hold it a second, then pull it out and WOWZERS – it was fresh,
pretty, clean, like new silver again!! We ARE like this! Jesus came and died
for us and our sins, by His death on the cross. He then defeated death by going
to hell and breaking the chains of sin – for us! He then rose again on the 3rd
day – for us! So now, we are like this silver: covered in yuck – our sins. But
when we receive the gift Jesus offers, our salvation and our way to heaven when
we die = a relationship with Him. This is us being dipped in the cleaning
liquid (hey! like baptism) – we are made clean and new! Buuuuttttttttt a LOT of
us either don’t believe that, or get caught up in our habits and forget –
either way, we are not fully living the life He has planned for us.
So, today, if you have not been “remembering” the
amazing gift you were given, and ALL of these amazing characters you ARE and
HAVE – then go take a shower. As you stand in the running water (or duck under
the water in a tub) fully SEE that as the water runs over you – that you ARE
being dipped in the cleaning solution of the Holy Spirit! You ARE and have ALL
of these amazing character traits He shared in these verses.
I’m praying for you today. Praying that you allow
the Holy Spirit to “dip” you in His Spirit, and show you the shining person
that you are. Flaws and all – but made new! Be well, be safe, and be blessed
BIG time!
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