Thursday 21 Aug 2014

August 21: Mark 2:18-22

Key Verse: Mark 2:21
No one sews a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment; or else the new piece pulls away from the old, and the tear is made worse.

Devotion:
If you wanted to fix something, would you use broken parts to fix it? And if you were called to fix something would you use matching parts or something new to make it look good? Two very different questions when you start to think about them but they relate to this question Jesus was asked. When we accept Christ into our lives we should be trying to live a changed life, one where the old ways should no longer fit and should look out of place. But equally we should not think that we can replace our ways with ways that will not fit in our lives.

That may sound a bit counter-intuitive but when we do change we need to keep our own selves, our own identity; not the wrong-doing identity, but the one that God gave us in the beginning. When we change our lives we want to be new people, but we cannot change into something that we are not! Jesus got some of the disciples from being fishermen to being fishers of men, but He did that because He knew what they were like on the inside and knew they would grow in their new lives. He did not change that part of them.

When we do have Christ in our lives we want to be able to live a life where we know Christ would not be shoved into a corner or dismayed that we are still evil in our ways. We want to be new creatures. We can be. But we must be the creatures that God has given us to be and not some made up thing that we think we can be. God knows our own minds are not up to the task of making a new life for ourselves so He stays with us and guides us all along the way – so long as we listen!

Don’t try and fit God’s ways into your current life either! God changes you so that you will be able to lead a new life with Him not stay in the old life and continue on in your own ways. Zacchaeus changed his ways, but he remained the same man with a very different outlook. If he tried to be a Christian and continued defrauding clients it would not have worked!

Points to Ponder:
Do you know what Christ has in store for you?

Are you willing to give Him control?