One of the great benefits of faithfully following our Lord
Jesus Christ is that He is constantly renewing us and bringing us into the new things
He has for us to receive. One of the
challenges of following our Lord Jesus Christ is that He is constantly renewing
us and bringing us into the new things He has for us to receive. That paragraph was not a typo!
In his book, “The Glory Within”, Corey Russell writes: “We
need to realize that we were made to come alive and discover God as we fight
and contend and wrestle for our faith. The
greatest war that we are in right now is against the spirit of complacency. So many of us are lazy in our approach to
growth in the Kingdom of God. In other
words, we live our lives trapped in the cycle of rejection, fear, anger,
bitterness, self-hatred, and addiction, and we agree with the lie that this is
our portion: “This is just the way things are.”
We deny the true power of the Gospel, and rather than stand and fight,
we run toward comfort—food, sleep, pornography, entertainment—anything to numb
us and take the edge off the pain without requiring us to exert ourselves. Although it is true that we receive salvation
freely, we have to fight to gain breakthrough and take ground in the Kingdom.”
It’s human nature to resist change, while taking the path
of least resistance, and remaining in a state of complacency. It is also more natural for people to return
to the place of familiarity and comfort.
The truth is that if you are not embracing the new things God is doing
in your life, you are shrinking back from God’s best for you and missing your
opportunity for breakthrough.
Every time I just try to “maintain” during my workouts, I
always end up getting weaker, running slower and adding a few inches to my
waistline. I never just “maintain”! The only time I get stronger, run faster and
reduce the number on the tag of my jeans is when I am pushing myself to shatter
previous physical workout barriers.
In fact, I am convinced that when we live in complacency
or just try to maintain in life, we will actually digress to the old way of
living that was not beneficial to us in the first place. If you don’t commit to renew, you are making
a choice to return. The Israelites are a
perfect example of this in Scripture!
The combination of God’s providence and a famine in the
land led Joseph, his family, and the sons of Israel to Egypt. Faithful to His dominion mandate and promise,
God prospered the Israelites while in Egypt.
In fact, they became so numerous, the new king of Egypt feared they
would become too powerful and leave the country. The new king devised a plan to oppress the
Israelites with hard labor, and kill their first-born male babies by throwing
them into the Nile.
The oppression was so great that the Israelites began to
cry out to God for deliverance. God heard
their cry and called a man named Moses to lead them out of their slavery and
bondage in Egypt. God had a new place
for them to live, a good and spacious land flowing with milk and honey, called
the Promised Land. In order to inherit
their Promised Land, the Israelites would have to pass through the Red Sea,
endure the desert journey and it’s harsh conditions, cross the Jordan River
during flood season, and defeat the giants in the land.
These obstacles to their promises caused the Israelites to
request a return back to Egypt way too often.
After watching God do miracle after miracle to deliver them out of
Egypt, the Israelites lamented their exodus from Egypt as soon as they faced
their first adversity at the Red Sea.
Read their plea in Exodus 14:10-12. It says: “10 As Pharaoh approached, the Israelites looked up, and there were the
Egyptians, marching after them. They were terrified and cried out to the Lord. 11 They said to Moses, “Was it
because there were no graves in Egypt that you brought us to the desert to die? What
have you done to us by bringing us out of Egypt? 12 Didn’t we say to you in Egypt, ‘Leave us alone; let us
serve the Egyptians’? It would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians
than to die in the desert!
Instead of embracing resistance as God’s refining process,
the Israelites grumbled and complained during their journey to the Promised
Land. As crazy as it may sound, they
even longed to return to their slavery in Egypt. This negative attitude and lack of proper
perspective caused their whole generation to perish in the desert and not enter
into the new land God had for them.
It is important to note that God had the Israelites pass through the Red Sea as He parted the
water. After the Israelites arrived
safely on land, God made the water crash down and destroy the pursuing
Egyptians. God had to make sure there
was a physical barrier from Egypt, the Red Sea, because He knew the Israelites
would want to return to Egypt.
In Proverbs 26:11,
Solomon uses a vulgar example to remind us that fools return to things or
repeat behavior that is not conducive to their future success and prosperity. It says, “As
a dog returns to its vomit, so a
fool repeats his folly.” Just like a
dog that doesn’t look for a new meal, and goes back and eats the same food that
made it throw up, fools return to behavior, situations or places they should
leave behind.
Since it is easier for humans to return instead of renew,
how do we position ourselves to receive the new and best God has for us?
Romans 12:1-2
gives us some great revelation on how to do this. Let’s read it!
Therefore, I urge
you, brothers, in view of God’s
mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this
is your spiritual act of
worship. 2 Do not conform
any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of
your mind. Then you will be able
to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.
From this passage of Scripture I try to apply 5 principles
that help me embrace God’s renewing process in me. I hope this helps you also.
(1) Rely on God’s mercy to help you.
(2) Offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and
pleasing to God. In other words, daily
submit yourself to God’s will by following the Lord Jesus Christ.
(3) Do not follow the world’s way of making decisions or doing
things.
(4) Embrace God’s transformation process in you by
praying, worshipping and reading the Holy Bible.
(5) Thank God that His will is good, perfect and pleasing
(especially when you are experiencing resistance and going through trials or
tough times).
Do you want to receive the new things God has for
you? Do you want to possess your
Promised Land? If so, you are going to
have to embrace God’s renewing process in you, while resisting the temptation
to return to the old and familiar way of living.
Any personal trainer or body builder will tell you that
strength is built through resistance.
And strength of spirit is built in the same way: through
resistance. As we learn to press against
the pull of our emotions, bodies, and circumstances that influence us to return
to the old, we begin to grow in strength and receive power to walk in the new spiritual
breakthrough and stand steady during difficult times.
I’ll conclude with the words of Walter Wriston: All life
is the management of risk, not its elimination.
Are you renewing or returning?
