Do you have big plans to "turn over a new leaf" for 2023? Are you really gonna "put your mind to it" (whatever it is) and get it done this time? Let me save you some frustration...it ain't gonna work. Now, you may bristle at that and say, "I can do whatever I put my mind to". And you may be right, in a sense. But that sense is only superficial. At best, it is behavior modification. A mere band-aid on an internal hemorrage. No, your problem is much deeper than your behavior. Your problem is, in the depths of your heart, you are an evil person and there is nothing you can do about it.
Are you wondering how I know this about you? I only know it because God has revealed it. About you...and about me, too. In Jeremiah 13:23, God's Word says, "Can the Ethiopian change his skin or the leopard his spots? Then also you can do good who are accustomed to do evil." You see, even if you are able to muster up some better behaviors, you cannot fashion a new you. Your skin is your skin and your spots are your spots. You were born with them. This means that you are in dire straits, my friend.
Have you wondered why so many people have recently adopted the stance that they can change who they are simply by a surgery or a change of clothes or by adopting new pronouns to describe their identity? It is because they want it to be true so desperately. These people are so miserable in their own skin, with their own spots, that they long to become something else...something that they are not. And have you noticed that their superficial "fix" is often ugly, destructive, degrading and that it never accomplishes the desired result?
Friend, if you are seeking to change your life by superficial means, your efforts will prove no more effective than the disenchanted crossdresser's. Just because he puts on a skirt and high heels doesn't make him a woman. Neither does your modified behavior make you good or approved of. Your wicked heart is still yours (Jeremiah 17:9). You need a transplant...and you are no surgeon.
Fortunately for you, there is One who is. There is the Great Physician, who you have been granted access to. He is able to remove your heart of stone and replace it with a heart of flesh (Ezekiel 36:26). What must you do to receive this great benefit? You must ask Him.
Seriously. That is it! Humbly ask Him for a new heart and submit your entire self to His ability and care. Accept His instructions and prescription and obey what He has said. He has the heart you need. He will perform the surgery, planting it with you. He will prescribe and provide the beneficial medicines for you and will maintain your care all the way to the end. All you need to do is ask Him and trust Him. He will do the work.
And what does this cost you? Nothing. And everything.
This costs you nothing in the sense that Jesus has graciously paid the price. You do not possess the funds required to purchase such a service. No man does. Only God does. And He has done it (John 3:16).
Yet this costs you everything in the sense that you are no longer your own. He owns you. Not only did He create you, but now He has purchased you (I Corinthians 6:19-20). You are to follow His every command.
But His commands are not burdensome (I John 5:3) and He will carry you through to the end. If He begins this work within you, He will not leave it undone, but will complete it as the apostle Paul tells us, "And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ" (Philippians 1:6).
So, new year, new you? Only if Jesus makes you new.
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