RECEIVE THE NEW

For I am about to
do something new.
Isaiah 43:18

Isn’t it interesting how so many things from our past stay with us and are carried into our present? We remember hurtful words that we were told as a child, embarrassing moments, and times that were extremely painful to endure. We walk around with wounds and scars that, if we were honest, most people wouldn't even know we had inside us. It pains us to mentally go back to these times and most times we try to avoid these thoughts altogether, acting like these moments never existed. 

However, there is one person who knows all of the deepest, darkest experiences we have had to encounter and He has been with us through it all.

God has been there with us through the good and the bad, the pretty and the ugly, and He wants to use everything we have been through for His glory.

Isaiah 43:18-19 says,

“But forget all that – it is nothing compared to what I am going to do. For I am about to do something new. See, I have already begun! Do you not see it? I will make a pathway through the wilderness. I will create rivers in the dry wasteland.” 

This passage of scripture is a great reminder that God has something new in store for each one of us. He wants us to find healing from what was behind and to know that He is up to something great.

We can choose to embrace the “garbage” in our past—even letting it dictate how we act—and not let God fill us with the newness He wants to give us. 

I believe that through worship and praising our God, the Lord wants to fill us to overflowing with His presence. He wants to remove our hearts of stone and replace them with hearts of flesh (Ezekiel 36:26). He wants to replace the old with the new. So many times we block this great exchange, because we are completely wrapped up in our past experiences. We dwell on them and meditate on what went wrong. We choose not to let go, and when we do this, we end up sacrificing the abundant life that is ours in Christ. 

I want to encourage you today to give everything over to the Lord—to leave everything behind, to find necessary healing, and to not look back. 

God has something incredible He wants to do in and through us, and it is up to us to allow Him to work as He desires. May we open up our hearts to Him in times of worship and praise, and give him all that we are. It is then that He can take our hearts of stone and turn them into hearts of flesh.

It is then that we can receive the new. 


Israel
italamantes@b4church.org