My Favorite Three Things The Bible Tells Us About Our Faith And A New You
Faith And A New You
A new you begins with faith and the beginning of faith initiates a new you.
When I look back to the first moment of my faith, I see a moment in time where the trajectory of my life turned. What initiated my faith was a desire for a new me. I realized that life the old way, i.e. my way, exposed a desperate need for change. Somehow, I wanted to find a way to be and live differently. However, my past life towered over my desires reminding me of my weaknesses and past failures.
But God continued to call me, draw me, and stir new desires within me
“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?
Isaiah 43:18-19a
This passage in Isaiah shows us how God sees our past. He says, “Forget all that.” God’s work dramatically supersedes even the ugliest sin and scenes from our past. And I don’t know about you, but some scenes from my past were so ugly and sinful, I want to forget them. The good news is that God wants us to forget them as well. That is one thing I love about God. While you and I tend to relive past events in our minds, the Lord wants to get us to a new place.
“See, I will create new heavens and a new earth.
The former things will not be remembered, nor will they come to mind.
Isaiah 65:17
God’s Promise of New
The beauty of this promise, is not only will we one day experience life completely new, but the ugliness of our past will no longer enter our minds. God promised to create a new heavens and new earth and a complete deletion of our memory bank of former things.
Twenty-seven years into my faith journey, I now understand the significance of forgetting our past when longing for a “new you”. Holding on to past failures and even successes hinders us from receiving the new life God wants to give us. If you want forward progress towards a new you, do what God wants you to do and, Forget all that!
Why? Because as God said in Isaiah 43:18, I am about to do something new.
Ecclesiastes 3:11 says God set eternity in our hearts. That fact along with all we looked at so far shows us that our Creator established us with an eternal longing that causes us to pursue and gravitate to new. He created us for something new and intended this desire in us to turn our hearts and longings to Him.
Revelation 21:5 says, Then He who sat on the throne said, "Behold, I make all things new.”
The one who created us to desire new and makes all things new says quite a bit about new. The term is used 153 times in the Bible. So, when we feel that inner longing, maybe we need to turn our attention to Jesus and His word to know and understand all the new God promised and gave us through His Son, Jesus.
What The Bible Tells Us About A New You
God promises a new name to the overcomer.
To him who overcomes I will give some of the hidden manna to eat.
And I will give him a white stone, and on the stone a new name
written which no one knows except him who receives it."
Revelation 2:17
The promise of a new name may be one of my favorite promises God gave us because I lived a life that damaged and brought shame to my own name. Therefore, I love the fact that one day, I get a pure and honorable name Jesus Himself picked out for me.
Let’s parallel the significance of our eternal new name with an earthly name change. When a man and woman marry, a woman commonly takes her husband’s name. This name change signifies a new family and future. Sometimes people change their names to disconnect or disassociate from the past and to start over in a new direction.
In light of our discussion of sin and failures of our past, think about how those things tainted or brought shame to our name. In Revelation 2:17 God promised a new name to the overcomer. Who is the overcomer? And how do we overcome?
For whatever is born of God overcomes the world.
And this is the victory that has overcome the world--our faith.
1 John 5:4
And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony,
and they did not love their lives to the death.
Revelation 12:11
The overcomer is the one whose faith is in Jesus. I believe they are forgetters of their past, who believe that Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross really worked and gave them a new identity.
2. God promises to give us a new heart.
I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you;
I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.
Ezekiel 36:26
Let’s take a moment to think about our heart. The heart in Hebrew literature spoke of the inner most being, the soul, the mind, the will and understanding of a man (woman) and the seat of our emotions, passions, and appetites. The heart is the core of who we are as a person and is probably the most vulnerable part of our being.
Life in this world damages our hearts. Sin wounds and scars our hearts. Rejection, separation, broken relationships and the presence of death pierces and lacerates our hearts. Often times our reaction to the pain of this world screams to our heart, PROTECT! So we erect walls around our hearts to shield us from pain. Resulting in a hard heart of stone and living a lifeless existence.
But through faith in Christ, God gives us a new heart.
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation;
old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.
2 Corinthians 5:17
3. God promised to put a new spirit in us. (See Ezekiel 36:26)
Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been
poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us.
Romans 5:5
For He whom God has sent speaks the words of God;
for He gives the Spirit without measure.
John 3:34
The Holy Spirit is the living water that Jesus offers to all who will come to Him and drink. I covered this in my blog post last week, Living Water, Endless Satisfaction For The Thirsty Soul – John 7:37.
These three promises bring to mind, another Bible verse about new.
Behold, the former things have come to pass, and new things I declare;
before they spring forth I tell you of them." Sing to the LORD a new song,
And His praise from the ends of the earth…!
Isaiah 42:9-10
Dear Sister in Christ, if you truly embrace and experience these incredible promises, you have reason to sing a new song of God’s great work in your life. In reality, we don’t sing new songs when our hearts are discouraged. We sing new songs when we are encouraged. I pray you are encouraged today to sing a new song of God’s faithfulness and promises realized in your life.
Much Love and Blessings!
