My son runs on his high school cross-country team and they have had a fantastic season which culminated in winning the California state championship for division 2 schools. Woohoo! Over the past few months it has been special to see him and his team members develop as young men. Like many athletes their training involves tearing muscles down. This would be damaging if it wasn’t for the body’s ability to repair the muscles during rest periods to make them stronger and more enduring. You probably experience a “tearing down” of sorts as you face daily tasks, stresses, and trials. You need adequate rest each day to recover mentally, emotionally, physically, and spiritually. To grow and thrive you also need God. God has created you to have a relationship with him. As life routinely tears you down, rely on God daily to renew you—stronger and better equipped.
Some people have never thought of personally knowing God like this. Yet, like breathing, continually relying on God is essential to your well being. That’s why Jesus, God the Son, became a man on earth. When he did he enabled us to have a relationship with God and experience the joyful and abundant life that is only found in him (John 10:10). Jesus described this vital, continual connection he provides in multiple ways. He called himself living water for the thirsty, daily bread for the hungry, the vine that nourishes the branch, the good shepherd for the lost, the door for the outcast, the way for the hopeless and unable, the light for those in darkness, the truth for the blind, the life for the condemned, and the resurrection for the spiritually dead (John 4:7-15, 6:22-59, 15:1-6, 10:1-18, 8:12-30, 14:6, 11:17-27). Jesus summed up his preeminence by stating that he is uniquely the great “I AM” who lovingly shares of himself to meet your every need. Apart from him you will die (John 8:12-59). In the book of Colossians it says of Jesus, “For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together” (Colossians 1:16-17). Take these truthful claims to heart and give Jesus the priority in your life that he deserves and that you need.
Life is difficult because people have chosen to serve themselves instead of God. When God created humankind, he gave Adam and Eve a body, a soul (intellect, emotions, will), and a spirit (Gen. 1:26-27; 2:7). Tragically they put the desires of their body and soul above the fellowship they had with God through their spirit by disobeying God. This is a polar perversion of God’s will for them. His perfect design was for their spirit to govern their body and soul in harmonious relationship with him, not the other way around. You and I and every person have inherited this corruption (Romans 3:9-23). Our spirits are dead and inattentive to God. Thus, our default inclination is to please our body and soul. This hostility toward God has resulted in incredible hardship, suffering, and brokenness for our world and every person. You can readily see this all around us. Fortunately, God has a solution (John 3:16; Romans 5:8; Isaiah 53).
Live anew for your benefit: The only way to be saved from this destructive lifestyle is to trust and obey Jesus. When you do he saves you from yourself and the self-centeredness that will eventually kill you. God does so by giving believers his Spirit to counsel, correct, guide, and empower them as he renews them day-by-day (John 14:26; Ephesians 1:13-14). The apostle Paul wrote of this process, “They [unbelievers] have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity. But that is not the way you learned Christ!—assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus, to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness” (Ephesians 4:19-24).
Live anew for the benefit of others: Although you will experience challenges as you learn to yield your body and soul to the guidance and power of God’s Spirit in you, you are no longer bound to your old way of putting yourself first. Jesus has given you victory over that deadly affinity. You can live anew in Jesus. This power and freedom in Jesus allows you to see and to work beyond yourself in order to benefit others. As you let Jesus live in you like a branch drawing life from the vine you will bear fruit of righteousness and God will work through to save others (John 15:1-11). Paul described it in his letter to believers in Corinth, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Corinthians 5:17-21).
Live anew for the future: Your new Spirit-filled life is not only a blessed present reality each day, but it is training you for what God has in store for eternity as a part of his family and mission. What you do now and the character you are developing through faith as you become more and more like Jesus are preparing you to reign with Jesus when he returns soon to consummate his kingdom. Jesus came to earth the first time to bring about salvation from the inside out for anyone who believes in him. However, he did not heal all brokenness, judge the wicked, eliminate evil, or imprison Satan yet. After his resurrection, he returned to heaven and God has been continuing his renewal process on earth by his Spirit working through believers. At the right time Jesus will return and finish restoring creation back to God’s original design (1 Corinthians 15:20-28). He will reward believers, judge unbelievers, vanquish evil, punish Satan, and usher in a new heaven and earth where he will dwell in love, peace, and goodness with his followers (Revelation 19-21). Jesus gave the apostle John a vision of what that glorious time will be like,
"Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, 'Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.'" "And he who was seated on the throne said, 'Behold, I am making all things new.' Also he said, 'Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.' And he said to me, 'It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give from the spring of the water of life without payment. The one who conquers will have this heritage, and I will be his God and he will be my son'" (Revelation 21:1-7).
Wow. God’s renewal process is wonderful and comprehensive. Can I pray that you may experience it?
“Heavenly Father, thank you for your love and encouragement and for working to save, restore, and make new. All around us it seems like circumstances are trying to tear us down or knock the breath out of us. Thank you that we can live each day anew in Jesus. I pray that for each person reading this blog or listening to the podcast. Like breathing may they live anew in Jesus. May they confess any wrongdoing or failures and receive your forgiveness. May they cast their cares on you and let you lift their burdens. May they submit their bodies and souls to the control of your Spirit. May they rely on Jesus as their savior, source, shepherd, and life. May they grow in love for you so much that it overflows to those around them. In Jesus’ precious name, Amen.”