New Thinking, New Living
TODAY’S SCRIPTURE
And no one puts new wine into old
wineskins; or else the new wine bursts the wineskins, the wine is spilled, and
the wineskins are ruined. But new wine must be put into new wineskins.
Mark 2:22, NKJV.
TODAY’S WORD
Are you ready for increase? Are you
ready to go to the next level, spiritually, physically and emotionally? Many
times, people hear the truth that God has more in store, and something
resonates on the inside. Their spirit comes into agreement with God; but often
times, their natural mind will try to talk them out it. Thoughts will come
like, “It’s not going to happen for you. You’re not going to have a great year.
You know what the economy is like.” Or, “You’re never going to get well. You
saw what the medical report said.” “You’re never going to get married. You’ve
been single so long.”
Friend, those are the old wineskins
or the old way of thinking that you have to get rid of. This is a new season.
What’s happened in the past is over and done. You may have been through some
disappointments, you may have tried and failed, or things didn’t work out.
That’s okay. God is still in control. It’s time to get a new vision for your
life. It’s time to open yourself to a new way of thinking so that you can
receive all the blessings God has in store for you!
PRAYER FOR TODAY
Father in heaven, today I choose to
get rid of old wineskins. I choose to release old thinking, old habits, and
anything that would keep me from Your best. Strengthen me by Your Spirit so
that I can live my life in a way that pleases You in Jesus’ Name. Amen.
***
“We must give our lives for other believers.” (1 John 3:16 GW)
In calling us to sacrificial service, God doesn’t ask us to do any more than Jesus, who came “as a sacrifice to clear away our sins and the damage they've done to our relationship with God ... if God loved us like this, we certainly ought to love each other” (1 John 4:10-12 MSG).
Yet, as Rick Warren regularly teaches, any believer familiar with John 3:16, “For God so loved the world ...” (NIV), must also become familiar with 1 John 3:16: “This is how we've come to understand and experience love: Christ sacrificed his life for us. This is why we ought to live sacrificially for our fellow believers, and not just be out for ourselves” (MSG).
The point is service cannot be separated from sacrifice.
And so the life of a maturing Christian must shift from little or no sacrifice to a willingness to sacrifice any and all that may be required to help others grow into spiritual maturity.
The poet-king David understood this, and so he wouldn’t offer a sacrifice to God that cost him nothing: “But the king replied to Araunah, ‘No, I insist on paying you for it. I will not sacrifice to the Lord my God burnt offerings that cost me nothing.’ So David bought the threshing floor and the oxen and paid fifty shekels of silver for them” (2 Samuel 24:24 NIV).
The cost of sacrificial service runs past mere notions of money. It may mean giving up dreams, expectations, reputations, retirements, whatever God asks in order to lovingly enrich the lives of others.
We benefit today because saints before saw that service includes sacrifice. It is now our time to do the same for others, living like the poetic King David, who served his generation before he died (Acts 13:36).
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