Renewal: come home

"I am changing my diet."

"I am changing my hair color."

"I am changing my routine."

All of these things we have control over to come extent. Then there is the tricky part of trying to change who we are. 

Missy from 631 says "Change occurs when the pain of staying the same is worse than the pain of change."

Google defines change as "make or become different".

Arnold Bessier says "Change occurs when one becomes what he is, not when he tries to become what he is not."

I think what Arnold is talking about is actually renewal.

Google defines renew as "resume an activity after an interruption".

Psalm 51:10 says "Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew in me a right spirit."

Isaiah 40:31 says, "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."

2 Corinthians 4:16 says, "So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day."

I've tried to be who I'm not. I've tried to do things to please others. I've tried to sound like I know what I'm talking about. I've tried to earn the approval of friends and relatives all while pushing my self-love on the back burner. 

I believe the whole Bible is true.

This means I believe that I was fearfully and wonderfully designed before I even entered the womb.

Also it means that I believe designing me was not just done wonderfully for the sake of being wonderful but that I was created in the image and likeness of God. 

I also believe that when I laid down my heart and confessed that Jesus is the way, truth, and the life, the Holy Spirit entered my heart with a victorious celebration. My sins were forgiven once and for all. From that moment on, my life was claimed as a child of the King; royalty finally come home and reconciled to a loving Father.

This means that I went from definition sinner to definition saint. I was then a new creation with a clean slate and a promise that I would never be left or forsaken. Everything changed. My home was no longer this world, it is heaven. My mission was no longer survival but thriving with joy and peace. My hands were no longer bound for idle toil, but destined to heal the sick and hold the broken. My heart was no longer stained with the black tar of sin, but clean, fresh, and white as snow.

This world no longer had any claim on my emotions, mind, or soul.
From that moment on, I was free.

Any time after that point that sin appears in my life, it's not because I am bound to it. It is a choice that I have to walk through that door, open that web browser, say those words, or listen to those lies.

It's a choice that I don't have to make. It's a choice that you don't have to make.

"Do not conform 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."
Romans 12:2

This is not a set of rules or an impossible charge to complete. This is an invitation to come home. The King invites you to lay down self-fulfillment, entitlement, depression, anxiety, insecurity, and longing and be filled with peace, patience, joy, gentleness, and a love so fulfilling that you never are in want or need again.

It's a renewal. It's a coming back to something you ALREADY possess.
He isn't withholding strength and then giving you a brand new vile when it's time.
He is there with you, inviting you to draw from the strength that is already IN you.
He is asking you to remove the blinders that the world tries to put on you and see the light that is already in you.
It's not you in your worldly armor, it the Holy Spirit in you.
The Spirit you received when you believed in Jesus.
The same Spirit that raised Christ from the dead.

It's time for renewal. It's time to be rejuvenated by the one who gives life. It's time to come home.