New Day

Jesus came to give you life abundantly. Embrace that you are loved by God and let Him lead you to everlasting life where you appreciate each moment of along the way. 

“David sang to the Lord the words of this song when the Lord delivered him…The Lord is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer; my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield and the horn of my salvation. He is my stronghold, my refuge and my savior …I called to the Lord, who is worthy of praise, and have been saved…In my distress I called to the Lord; I called out to my God. He reached down from on high and took hold of me; he drew me out of deep waters. He brought me out into a spacious place; he rescued me because he delighted in me. For I have kept the ways of the Lord; I am not guilty of turning from my God. I have been blameless before him and have kept myself from sin. You, Lord, are my lamp; the Lord turns my darkness into light. With your help I can advance against a troop; with my God I can scale a wall. As for God, his way is perfect: The Lord’s word is flawless; he shields all who take refuge in him. It is God who arms me with strength and keeps my way secure. The Lord lives! Praise be to my Rock! Exalted be my God, the Rock, my Savior! Therefore I will praise you, Lord, among the nations; I will sing the praises of your name.” 2 Samuel 22:1-50

Can you think of a time where you overcame the odds and experienced success during a time you should have lost? David is singing and dancing as he escaped the jaws of defeat. He beat death and is full of life. There is so much that we could learn from this passage. 

We were never made to just make it through each day. God did not make us to just be survivors. He made us to be alive and thrive. Look at how David responded to his salvation. Is this your response? Are you praising God for what He has done and who He is? David said God drew him out and delivered him from deep waters. 

There is a remarkable line that David sang. He said he is blameless and not guilty of turning from God. David was a murderer and an adulterer but that is not how he saw himself. He let go of his sin and saw himself as God made him to be. He even said I have kept myself from sin. How? What? David saw his life differently.  He saw forgiveness as real and freedom as a gift to let go of the past. So much so that he said I have not sinned. His whole focus is on oneness with God and his current heart that is free. Is that how you feel or are you stuck in the past? Do you see yourself as God does?

Can you picture being stuck swimming in the ocean with no way back to the shore? This was David’s experience and yet God sent him a life raft just like He has done for each of us. David praised God for giving him another day and declared his only response could be praise. He sang you have strengthened and saved me therefore I will sing! Do you have a song on your lips? Are you ready to sing for what God has done and the new day He has given you today? 

“You have searched me, Lord, and you know me. You know when I sit and when I rise; You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways. Before a word is on my tongue you, Lord, know it completely. Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there. For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place, Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be. How precious to me are your thoughts, God! How vast is the sum of them! Were I to count them, they would outnumber the grains of sand— when I awake, I am still with you. Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.” Psalms 139:1-24

We all long for a life of connection where we are loved as we are. We live in a world that loves to put on masks and pretend to be a certain way to be socially accepted. The problem with this is it leaves us empty and feeling unseen.  You are not made to feel this way. There is a God who made you, knows you, sees you and loves you because you are His. 

Do you understand what it means to be fearfully and wonderfully made?  Do you believe that the hand of the living God knit you together in your mother’s womb? Do you understand how precious you are to Him? David does.  He believed that God delighted in him and it changed his life. The life of faith is not about memorizing rules and checking a box by attending church one day a week.  

It is about learning to receive the love of Christ and letting that love flow through you as He leads you in the ways everlasting. It is about learning that nothing can separate you from the love of Christ. Not heighth nor depth nor angels nor demons nor sin nor sanctity. The love of God is everywhere and inescapable to those who open up to that love. It is about learning to let go of the false and live in truth. It is about discovering your unique strengths and gifts that can help bring love to the world and build up the kingdom of God. Life is about living connected to the One who made you and to every other person He made and loves. God wants you to feel safe and seen. Loved and valued. Take time to let God love you today and listen to his voice. Let Him search you so you can learn anything that is keeping you from experiencing the transforming power of His perfect love. 

“There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens: a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to uproot, a time to kill and a time to heal, a time to tear down and a time to build, a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance, a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them, a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing, a time to search and a time to give up, a time to keep and a time to throw away, a time to tear and a time to mend, a time to be silent and a time to speak, He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end. I know that there is nothing better for people than to be happy and to do good while they live. That each of them may eat and drink, and find satisfaction in all their toil—this is the gift of God.” Ecclesiastes 3:1-13

Time is a relative concept in that it changes based on our understanding of it. To the young, the time ahead is infinite. They cannot picture being 50 or life fading.  The only thing ahead is endless time and that abundance can make them not appreciate the gift that it is. Do you ever take time for granted? Do you ever waste days or wistfully wish for the weekend? 

As you age, an interesting thing occurs. Your understanding of time changes. Suddenly time becomes a countdown rather than an infinite clock. The older you are the more you can read Solomon's words and put a picture in your mind to each time that he recounts. You can picture birth and death.  You can picture tears of laughter and tears of loss. It is much easier to look back and understand how God makes everything beautiful and its time.  What will you do with your minutes today? Will you treat this day as a gift? Or will you worry and hurry your way through it as though this day could come again? It cannot. Time is our most precious commodity. Will you take time to soak it all in and lift a song of praise? Will you see an old friend and see that this is the day the Lord has made, that it can be a day of rejoicing?

“In those days Hezekiah became ill and was at the point of death…This is what the Lord says: Put your house in order, because you are going to die; you will not recover.” Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed to the Lord, “Remember, Lord, how I have walked before you faithfully and with wholehearted devotion and have done what is good in your eyes.” And Hezekiah wept bitterly. Then the word of the Lord came to Isaiah: “Go and tell Hezekiah, ‘This is what the Lord, the God of your father David, says: I have heard your prayer and seen your tears; I will add fifteen years to your life. I said, “I will not again see the Lord himself in the land of the living; no longer will I look on my fellow man, or be with those who now dwell in this world. But what can I say? He has spoken to me, and he himself has done this. I will walk humbly…Lord, by such things people live; and my spirit finds life in them too. You restored me to health and let me live. The living, the living—they praise you, as I am doing today; parents tell their children about your faithfulness. The Lord will save me, and we will sing.” Isaiah 38:1-20

Can you imagine being Hezekiah?  Can you imagine hearing the news that it is time to put your house in order? One day you will hear those words. Hezekiah said he is not ready to go. Are you? He asked the Lord for more time and God gives it. What an incredible prayer? Imagine the faith it would take to ask for more time. 

You better believe that every day after that was different for Hezekiah. It is impossible to take a day for granted when you were supposed to die. You better believe he had a skip in his step and a song in his heart everywhere he went. I bet he slowed down and did not spend time scrolling on his iPhone. Is it possible that we could learn from his life? Why wait until we are on death door to decide that time is a gift? Hezekiah responded to the gift of more time with a commitment to sing and share.  Shouldn’t we do the same thing? 

“A few days later, when Jesus again entered Capernaum…They gathered in such large numbers that there was no room left, not even outside the door…Some men came, bringing to him a paralyzed man, carried by four of them. Since they could not get him to Jesus because of the crowd, they made an opening in the roof above Jesus by digging through it and then lowered the mat the man was lying on. When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralyzed man, “Son, your sins are forgiven…He got up, took his mat and walked out in full view of them all. This amazed everyone and they praised God…Once again Jesus went out…As he walked along, he saw Levi son of Alphaeus sitting at the tax collector’s booth. “Follow me,” Jesus told him, and Levi got up and followed him. While Jesus was having dinner at Levi’s house, many tax collectors and sinners were eating with him and his disciples…It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners…no one pours new wine into old wineskins. Otherwise, the wine will burst the skins, and both the wine and the wineskins will be ruined. No, they pour new wine into new wineskins.” Mark 2:1-22

Jesus came to save and bring new life to those who had faith and would follow. He said he came for the sinners. He came for you and He came for me that we would find new life. He did not just come to help us get through each day. We were dead in our sin and like Hezekiah had a death sentence. But Jesus bought us back and brought us back. We have a new life. 

What is the best response to the gift of time and new life? Praise and living with a grateful heart seeing everything as from God, for God. Jesus said we are to pour new wine into new wineskins. He was saying we are not meant to go back to our old way of living and old way of thinking.  We are not meant to look like the rest of the crowd or conformed to our current culture. We are transformed like a caterpillar to a butterfly. We are made new and made to live like we were dying. Because we were. 

How will you respond to the love of Christ and gift of new life?  Will you sing, dance, and share the good news. Or will you keep it to yourself and go back to the way things were? You have been set free and to proclaim freedom to captives. 

David invited God to search him so that he could reveal anything that was in him that was not God’s love. David wanted to be full of the love of God and he invited God’s presence to so fill him that all that would flow out of him was love. This is the same message Jesus is giving about new wine and life led by the Spirit. Let that be our approach today as we come alive by the resurrection power within us and let us rejoice in the beauty that is right in front of our eyes. This is the day that the Lord has made let us rejoice and be glad in it knowing we are His and He is ours for all time especially today.