As we ring in a new year, I’m reminded of new beginnings. Most importantly, of the new beginning we are offered when we give our lives to Jesus and become a Christian… a new creation in the Lord.
The moment when you choose to give your life to Christ, everything changes. You may look the same on the outside, but God has given you a clean new slate, a brand new start! Every sin that you committed, every breach of promise, every angry word, every life-altering mistake?
Has been erased.
You are as clean, as new, as fresh as a newborn baby… and in God’s eyes, you are a totally new creation!
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!
2 Corinthians 5:17
Sit in that beautiful knowledge for a moment with me… a new creation.
Forgiven.
Adopted by a loving Father.
Free.
Worthy, a child of God!
Is there any gift more precious than that? Jesus Christ died for you and for me, while we were still sinners who were estranged from our Father and dying in our sins, in order to give us this new life… this eternal life, washed clean so we can stand in the presence of our Father when we are called Home.
At the same time, however, we’re living here in the fallen world. We’re human, we’re flawed, and we all continue to struggle with sin and brokenness. We struggle to fully understand what it means, this being “born again.” Like Nicodemus, the Pharisee who snuck away one night to talk with Jesus because he had seen the miracles and knew that this was no ordinary man, we might sometimes have questions:
Jesus declared, “I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again.”
“How can a man be born when he is old?” Nicodemus asked. “Surely he cannot enter a second time into his mother’s womb to be born!”
Jesus answered, “I tell you the truth, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit. Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. You should not be surprised at my saying, `You must be born again.’ The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.”
“How can this be?” Nicodemus asked.
“You are Israel’s teacher,” said Jesus, “and do you not understand these things? I tell you the truth, we speak of what we know, and we testify to what we have seen, but still you people do not accept our testimony. I have spoken to you of earthly things and you do not believe; how then will you believe if I speak of heavenly things? No one has ever gone into heaven except the one who came from heaven–the Son of Man.“
John 3:2-13
For a new believer, the world is a brand-new place and so much of what’s been learned, the worldly habits and thought processes and activities must be re-evaluated and re-set. A new life, like a newborn, must be fed continuously and protected and nourished in order to blossom and grow into all it’s meant to be.
For others, the years have passed and faith has chilled. Perhaps you’ve strayed, perhaps you’ve been fighting doubts. Maybe you just don’t feel the passion today that you did when you were first saved. Maybe you’ve been a Christian all your life, but haven’t really made your faith you own.
Maybe, this year, you want to draw closer to the Lord.
The good news is, the Good News is true every day… and it’s fresh every morning. And the believer is new every day as well! This new beginning is never-ending, once you say “yes” to grace and give your life to Jesus.
So this new year, let’s start with a series about New Beginnings. From the brand-new believer to the Christian who is eager to start fresh and breathe new life into their growing faith, we are all blessed with the continual gift of a new start.
This year, let’s commit together to grow closer to the Lord, to deepen our faith, and to step out into the gift of renewed life that we share in the Father. Let’s commit to helping our brothers and sisters in Christ do the same!
And, let’s thank God together that He has seen fit to give us each this fresh, new start. He is truly a good Father, a compassionate Creator, a passionate Defender, and the loving Protector of His children!
For the next few weeks, we’ll be exploring ways to “begin again” and help grow your faith…whether you became a Christian last week or decades ago. We’ll share ways to deepen your faith, get into and understand the Bible, and grow in fellowship with other believers.
If you have a habit, a story or an idea you’d like to share, please send us a note at support@ChristRevealed.com
It is a joy to become born again! I have been for years, but for many of those years I was still stuck in old patterns of thinking, believing and acting. This wasn’t because I wasn’t born a new creature that never existed before, but because my mind, will and emotions and my flesh had been trained well in the ways of the world and it’s thinking for years. Even though I gave Jesus my life at young age of 6-7 years, I had no-one training my spirit man, no Bible knowledge or understanding, no knowledge of the Holy Spirit or the gift of Him to lead and guide my life. I did not awaken to this until many years later in my early forties. So my passion for the Lord and His life in me did not come alive until then. This happened because the Lord was drawing me by His spirit through a very difficult time of depression. I had been living years of my life with bouts of deep depression and feelings of rejection. I had become well trained in my thinking patterns to become depressed.This is why it is so important to have our minds renewed to His precious Word, and why we need to have our flesh retrained so that our bodies our healed, whole and able to be temples the Holy Spirit can fully work in. This new life in us is a life that can become fully His as we give Him our bodies as living sacrifices and choose to renew our minds to the truth in His Word, of who we were created to be before the foundation of the world, before the fall. We each have been created in His image and His likeness to be His image bearers and when we are born again, our spirit comes alive to that life that lay dead and dormant like seed that needed to be sown in the earth. Coming alive onto our Creator and His amazing Love for us, gives us the opportunity to walk in freedom from sins bondage. We had no choice but to sin when our spirit being was not alive. We were slaves to sin and the ways of the world made it basically impossible without religious striving to live holy and set apart lives. We didn’t know who we truly were created to be and we didn’t know our Creator. We walked in pride, prejudice, and a life filled with self and often hurt one another because we only cared about what was best for me, myself and I and so used each other. We were slaves to fear, worry, depression and captives to doing evil things even if we didn’t think they were so bad. But Jesus the Christ, the Son of the living God gave His life as a ransom for all of our rebellion and He paid the full price for anyone who will believe to be set free from this slavery to the devil, who is man-kinds arch enemy. We truly can live a life that is full of God because He now lives and moves and has His being in us. However, we still have two forces that must be dealt with that are contrary to our living fully for God. Those forces are our flesh that has been trained well in doing things that were contour-productive to our life as spirit beings, and our souls -(mind, will and emotions) that have been trained to think, believe and act in ways contrary to God’s Word. We may be born again creatures who have everything we need to live a full life in God, but if we don’t build up our spirit man and therefore renew our mind on the truth of God’s Word we will consistently still choose old patterns. This is not God’s design or plan for us. However, every baby needs the proper nourishment to grow and every new child of God needs to be planted in a place where their new lives can thrive and become all God created them to be. We are needing to abide in Him to flourish and that means laying down and letting go of that dead old man that no longer has the right to live or have power over us. However, to grow consistently in the ways of faith, love and hope we cannot just become born again and not have good, strong and healthy spiritual parents who can feed us the things we need and encourage our spiritual growth. We all need the empowerment of the Holy Spirit,Jesus’ promise and gift to us, so that we can live the victorious, triumphant life in Him. So just last night, I was thinking how wonderful God’s Love is and how it is meant to bring full healing, spirit, soul and body. However, we need to lay down our flesh that screams we need this and that and we need to renew our minds to God’s ways of thinking and doing, so that our minds choose life and choose faith, hope and love in every decision and not choose that which is in conflict with God and who we were created to be. Choosing is our responsibility and priviledge but if you don’t know that you have a choice between life or death, if you don’t know the Lord’s precious Word or give the Holy Spirit the right to lead and guide your life, you can still end up choosing death without even knowing it, because the deceiver is still roaming about seeking whom he can destroy. But as born again children of the most High, we have a right to say no to satan as he is defeated, he has no right to bring the curse on our lives and he has no right to imprison us. So why do so many precious children of God still live under his power-because they haven’t laid down their flesh, they haven’t renewed their minds and they haven’t asked Holy Spirit to lead and guide them. This should not be so, but satan doesn’t play fair and God will not force you or me to turn to him and abide in him. We can choose to do so, and it would be foolish not to but in the end it means laying down things that have kept us in bondage to the lies of the enemy. And only the empowerment of the life giving force of our precious Holy Spirit can give us the power to resist. We need to humble ourselves to our need of God and His Gift of His Spirit to us and resist the devil. We need to become fully God’s in our flesh and our minds, so that our born again spirit grows strong and our flesh and our minds are in submission to who we truly are as image bearers of the One Who Loved us and Created us for Himself. What a joy when this happens! What a life we can live. Fully free from any form of slavery and fully His Beloved.
Cathy, thank you so very much for sharing your testimony! This is powerful, and what you say here is so true: “We need to become fully God’s in our flesh and our minds, so that our born again spirit grows strong and our flesh and our minds are in submission to who we truly are as image bearers of the One Who Loved us and Created us for Himself.” Amen, and thank you!
Yes,I would loved to be closer to Jesu Christ please pray forbme in Jesus name.Amen.
Alfreda, praying for you, that you will feel His presence every day and grow in faith and love for Him! May the Lord bless and protect you.
So excited about this I’m gonna find hubby so that we can do this together. Come to think of it I might just let the other family members know. “Oh for a deeper walk”
I’m so glad, Pauline! Bless you and thank you for commenting!
I’ m a Christian but have lost my way finding it hard to change my mindset and keep making the same old mistakes God in his great misery pulls me back up time after time thank you Lord, I want to be closer to God I do love him and fear him to but I keep doutng myself not him he is always right,plus’s I don’t know where to start to read his word? I uselessly try to let him Gide me,I’ m a bit loss but I know his found me just need a new mindset, thank you Lord God for all you have done for us and all u will do for us.Amen, Thank you Cathy for you beautiful testermouny
Julie, thank you for commenting! Have you ever tried a Bible reading plan? There are several great plans that set out daily readings for you. Here’s a link: https://www.biblestudytools.com/bible-reading-plan/