Remaining In The New

Remaining In the New
By: Michelle Adams

Ephesians 4:24 And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.

Put on-enduo-Greek word-to be clothed with

I asked the Lord how I could truly remain in this new beginning day after day and year after year. How could I clothe myself with this new person? A person, who thought different, felt different and behaved different than she had in the past? How could I truly become the person that God wants me to be and how could I walk in the center of his will? I can say all sorts of things but to see them come to pass, to live them everyday can be difficult. I asked for insight.

Everyday at least twice a day I change my clothes. In the morning I take off what I slept in and dress to go out to work. In the evening I change from my work clothes to whatever I am sleeping in. I would never consider going off to work in my pajamas so why do I sometimes go off to work without clothing myself with the new man? It’s the same thing. When I wake up in the morning before starting a new day I must invite the Lord to come go with me, I must communicate with Him and seek His guidance for that day otherwise I am leaving home bare and uncovered. I haven’t clothed myself with the new man I have neglected my Heavenly Father and my relationship with Him. This makes a huge difference in how the day goes and my attitude about the events of the day.

A day in most of our lives lasts several hours usually somewhere around eighteen and we only sleep about six. During the course of eighteen hours a lot of things happen. It’s common to drop something you eat or drink on your clothes; once the spot is there it doesn’t just go away. Spiritually speaking our days are filled with different people, many events, things that sometimes hurt, that make us angry, frustrated or just plain tired. We wear these things emotionally so many times and the affects of them can be seen whether we realize it or not.

That’s why it’s so important that at the end of the day we bring our baggage to the altar in prayer. Everything that we have picked up that day, all the things that have stained our lives and left a mark we must lay down at night. We have to talk to the Lord about our day and tell Him all that has taken place and leave it there with Him. That’s the only way we can truly lay down and rest in peace. If we will learn to do this we can get up the next morning with a clean slate because we’ve put it down the night before. We can put on clean, fresh clothes spiritual as well as physically and anew each morning. The stains from yesterday do not have to go with us again today. Today holds its own spots and if we don’t lay them down every night we will find that we are full of them. We will end up on overload, feeling overwhelmed and not knowing how to cope.

As I write this I am reminded of a Women’s conference I attended one Saturday four or five years ago with a co-worker. The speaker that day talked about walking in a new beginning and ridding yourself of all that was passed. Her illustration was of a wall. She said we are born with a blank wall but as we grow up all those around us write on our wall. The wall becomes covered with all the writing, it affects our behavior, our attitude and how we deal with things. She taught that when we come to Christ, he has the ability to erase what is on our wall. Christ Jesus can erase that old man but we have to let Him. We must be willing to look at the wall that has been covered with various things and talk about them. We must invite the Lord to erase those things, usually one at a time.

When God erases something that has been written on our wall he writes a new thing. He gives us new life and a new beginning, He really does make us new people and he compels us not to have the wall become covered again with negative things or things that are not of Him. He wants to write on our wall filling it with the goodness of His grace and mercy. He wants us to clothe ourselves with the new man everyday, to start with a clean slate, that’s why His word tells us His mercies are new every morning. We mess up, we endure a lot and we face so many different things. God presents us the opportunity to rid ourselves of all things old and remain in the new. The only way to remain is to repeat the pattern of changing your spiritual clothes daily.

Heavenly Father, I desire to remain in the new. Help me to clothe myself with the new man every morning and to lay down all that happens in a day every night. I don’t want to carry today with me tomorrow but I want to learn to start anew. In Jesus’ name, Amen.