Newness

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.  The old has passed away; behold the new has come.   2 Corinthians 5:17
            I looked down at Nehemiah sleeping in my arms.  He was already two weeks old, and I couldn’t believe how much he had changed.  I ran my fingers across his delicate features and smiled.  I thought about how once we were all this small, and that God had blessed my friend with such a beautiful new baby. 
            Life had been hard the last couple weeks.  I was stepping out on rough waters in my obedience to God, and Nehemiah was such a sweet reminder of how good God was.  As he shifted in my arms I heard God speak to the depths of my soul.
            “I don’t just restore, I make all things new.  Just like I crafted Nehemiah, I crafted you.  I know every little detail about you, and I am renewing the brokenness inside of you.”
            “Really God, are you?”  I prayed.  “Right now all I am seeing is a mess.  Fear and doubt are trying to entangle me, and I am still doing everything you ask of me.”

            I talked to my friend a little bit longer, about life in general.  We both agreed that we would make really crappy god’s over our own lives and in it was just a really nice, comfortable chat.
            After I said goodbye, and got in my car, I started thinking about what God told me.  I had been focusing so much on just trying to get my heart to heal, and become like it used to be, that I had never really considered that God may want to completely renew my heart.  I got home, and found multiple verses. 
            “Behold, I will do a new thing, now it shall spring forth; Shall you not know it?  I will even make a road in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.”
Isaiah 43:19
“Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.” Romans 12:2
“But they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.”                                            Isaiah 40:31
            Newness is something we are all attracted to.  We always want the new car, new house, new phone, new clothes, and new social network.  Why then, do we complain when God asks us to give up the old and dirty, for the new and better?  We so willingly hand over the IPhone 4 for the IPhone 5, but we won’t give God the broken pieces of our lives, so that He can make a new, better heart.  God is in the business of newness.  He has promised us healing, but God’s plan for healing is not to just restore, but to renew you.  You just have to give Him the pieces first.

“He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”                                                                   Revelations 21:4