New Wine - Day 8

It is in our very nature to try and put this new wine into our old wineskins. Why? It is because of our fallen, broken nature that we seek out more without making sacrifices.

My wife and I bought my mother's house a few years ago. The only issue was that my mom decided to move and not take her things. The good news is that we love much of her stuff. The bad news is that we had quite a bit of stuff. Our furniture, our tools, our plates and cutlery, and more somehow had to find a place amongst my mother's stuff.

This was challenging by any means. 4 years later, we are still trying to put our new stuff into her older house.  

Things might have been easier had we started with a new and empty canvas. My wife still dreams of moving into a new house with blank walls and no furniture, and we would have the opportunity to build it from scratch. The dream includes an unlimited budget, which would be awesome. 

But alas, it is a dream. 

But back to the topic at hand. We have this opportunity when it comes to our new nature.  We don’t have to bring in all the baggage that we have been lugging around for far too long. We can begin with a blank slate, with a new nature, and as new wine. With all of this, you would think we would be clamoring to be those people. 

However, we have a tendency to fall back into what is comfortable and what we are used to in order to keep our lives a little more comfortable. Also, we sometimes think that our behavior, which is very difficult to change, is what this whole thing is about.  

I have a question: What happens when you receive this new life and your behavior stubbornly does not change as immediately as the new life has begun? Does this mean that you have yet to really have the new life we have been talking about?

When we diminish our new nature to our behavior, we vastly underestimate what Christ has done for us. We have been given a new life, and sometimes it takes a moment for us to realize this. While we may have some of the same behaviors, we are no longer working on behavior change by ourselves; we are invited into a new life and new nature with Jesus Christ, and we need to let Jesus fill our lives with new furniture and paintings—Yes, I know I am taking this metaphor too far. 
 
JOURNAL

1. Did you behavior change the moment Christ made you into a new creation? 
2. Did it take a little longer? 
3. Are you still working on it? 
4. Does your behavior determine your trajectory anymore? 
5. How can Christ give you victory over behavior?