Daily devotional, June 26, 2024 Mr. Webster
"He will again have compassion on us; He will tread our iniquities underfoot. You will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea."
Micah 7:19
Growing up as a budding writer prior to the digital era, I treasured two books in our home library: my big red Webster’s dictionary, and the Roget thesaurus my mom gave me. It was not just a go-to for me as I composed my essays and did my assignments and projects, it was a treasure trove of information that I read and devoured during my free time.
And as I got older, I discovered that our lives can be defined by what we do, what we hold on to, what has been done to us, the people we choose to be with, and all the decisions that we make. And so, each wrong thing that we do, each failure we succumb to, and every bad choice that we make could in the end define how we see ourselves, and how others may see us.
But when we start to follow Jesus, no matter how stained our lives are, we get to shed that old stained clothing and wear the new garments of His salvation.
"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come." 2 Corinthians 5:17
So how does this happen? When we surrender our lives to Jesus and make Him our personal Lord and Savior, we put to death our old sinful self. The power that resurrected Christ from the dead, will be the same power that is at work in us and will empower us to live a new life. Never will we succumb again to the enemy’s lies that we cannot change ourselves because we are just human.
"I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me." Galatians 2:20
Once we accept this truth, we will no longer be burdened by how we perceive ourselves and how others perceive us. We look and define ourselves through God’s dictionary where:
Our past failures do not define us.Our past mistakes do not define us.
Our wrong choices do not define us.
The misdeeds and traumas other people inflicted on us do not define us.The unfortunate circumstances forced on us do not define us.
Instead, we will accept that in Christ, we are a new creation, therefore we will live a new life.
"And I will give them one heart, and a new spirit I will put within them. I will remove the heart of stone from their flesh and give them a heart of flesh, that they may walk in my statutes and keep my rules and obey them. And they shall be my people, and I will be their God."
Ezekiel 11:19-20
No longer will we be enslaved to our past lives, because we get to imbibe the truth that we are now a child of God. Being the daughter or the son of the King of Kings we will no longer see ourselves as bad persons, as losers, or failures. We will no longer look at ourselves in the mirror and see a victim of life’s tragedies and circumstances. We will accept the new life God gave us, and start living anew.
"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 4:22-24
Thank you for reading through our devotional today. I invite you to ponder on 2 Corinthians 5:17-21 and Ephesians 4:17-32 to dig deeper on today’s topic.
Reflection Question: Do you let your mistakes define you?
Conversation with the Lord: Heavenly Father, thank you for giving me a new heart, and a new life. Thank you for giving me a clean slate living a new life that glorifies you. Amen
