New

What’s the last new BIG thing you bought? A car? A house maybe?
Think back to when you were looking for this new thing to purchase. More than likely you were a bit more meticulous in finding something that suited your purposes than you would be if you were buying something less significant, like a pair of shorts or flip flops.
Big purchases come with an assumed and unshakable weight of responsibility – It’s got to be right because firstly, you want the house or car you pick to fulfill your needs and ‘represent’ you well….and on the other hand, you’ll be paying for it for quite some time. Initially, big purchases are seen as something uniquely different than something you merely buy, they’re investments and investments have to be worth it.

Next question, Are you still in that house? Do you still have that car? ...Do you still treat it the same as when it was new to you?

Being honest; even if it's a cute new pair of shorts or even flip flops, we treat new things differently... we treat them, well, like they're new but If you’re like me (or the rest of us), a peculiar thing happens over time: Newness wears off. What was once “No eating in the new car!” becomes French fries and condiment packets down in the unreachable area between the console and seat. At home, what was once fresh paint, Pine Sol and streak-fee windows becomes bug splatter, unidentifiable odors and the obvious need for a fresh coat of paint that can hold out for a 'few more months', when I find the time.
Really, I’m not pointing the finger. If you look at the space between my console and seats, or several areas around my house, you’ll see evidence of neglect that I would’ve never confessed to allowing such degradation when I made that exciting purchase. I would've denied it outright.
But these are temporal things. These things are getting older and wasting away more and more each day. It’s to be expected. My encouragement is that we recognize it and it’s appropriateness in the natural, but that we resist having that ‘same mind’ when it comes to spiritual things.

Here’s The Word:

Lamentations 3:22-23 It is of the LORD's mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness.

Ezekiel 36:26 A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh.

John 13:34 A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another.

Ephesians 4:24 And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.

Colossians 3:10 And have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him:

Hebrews 10:20 By a new and living way, which he hath consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh;

Want to hear something that hits home even more? I initially asked about what we buy for ourselves, but just think about how fast this ‘compromise’ happens when things are bought for us. I could’ve easily pointed out your favorite Christmas gift, which probably still gets some respectable usage. Even so, there’s a high likelihood that even at just under 5 months later….it’s less shiny. This is where and why we need to change our minds and put forth a supernatural effort to not lump all of our stuff into one category. In this case, we have to fight against the tendency to cheapen things over time. Especially because we don't want to convey the idea that free even remotely implies cheap.

Somehow there’s a false expectation of Christianity that we’re supposed to walk around with some fake or manufactured “smile” on our faces and of course, I don’t believe that’s true. Our lives, like the lives of any, go through ups and downs, joys and grief. However, I would like to hope that we aren’t tossed about recklessly, and that we have a stabilizing thing about us, Christ. I hope that we would look forward to each day as if the truth were true – new mercies, fresh from the factory are yours and can be embraced in a better way than we embrace temporal gifts …these gifts don’t wear with mileage and their paint never chips. They’re not temporal, they’re eternal and they remain as powerful and effective as when they were driven off the showroom floor! These gifts are infinitely bigger than any house or car, and by every definition of what God has done for us, there is no comparable investment.

So I pray for you, that each day the excitement of newness would meet you as your feet meet the floor: New joy, new grace, new understanding, a new desire for higher living, new focus, new stamina, new sense of purpose, new commitment to the things of God, new love, new patience, new ability to surrender and give, new hope and a refreshed faith that recognizes that the excitement behind all of this newness is an appreciation for Christ, Who is making all things (brand spankin') new!

In Him,
Cros