Author: Stephanie Murillo

[2 Corinthians 5:17 NIV] 17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!

     I can still remember the elderly, limping, wheezing, smoke-belching, gutless, rickety pile of metal that passed for a car that my dad coaxed into life every morning back in the fifties.  That pile of junk struggled to carry us on short trips to the grocery store and barely made it to the top of the nearby Hualapai Mountains. The trips from Kingman to Flagstaff in that old heap were worse. We never knew when a new clank or thud would signal another crisis with the tired engine or worn-out parts in the car’s rear end.  My father carried a whole case of oil in the trunk, knowing he would have to stop every hundred miles to pour in another quart into that leaky engine.  On downhill slopes, we had the illusion that that old jalopy had some power, but the steep grades returned us to the reality that this poor old vehicle would soon not be able to take us where we wanted to go.  The day came when no repair could keep that junker alive.  We needed a new car!

   You and I are much like that poor old ’39 sedan in many ways.  No more band-aids or quick fixes will do.  We are worn out and need to be made new, renovated from top to bottom, inside and out.  Only the death of our old self and the resurrection of the life of Christ within us will make us new and, by faith, able to conquer the steep mountains awaiting us on our journey (Galatians 2:20; Colossians 3:3-5).

     The first step to this regeneration, this making us new, comes when we, by faith, choose to sink or swim with Christ.  Being “in Christ” means we lean all of ourselves on Jesus, our perfect High Priest. As we kneel at the foot of the cross, we can receive forgiveness, and an undeserved do-over from the only One qualified to rescue us (Hebrews 5:9; 1Peter 3:22). 

    The next step brings with it a radical change.  We receive a heart transplant from Dr. Holy Spirit, our Great Physician.  Instead of exchanging one sin for another or spraying ourselves with some kind of outward morality to try to kill the stench of death, we emerge from spiritual heart surgery as a totally new creation (Colossians 2:11). God doesn’t just pare away some sin here and some evil there, a misconception here, and a lie there.  He changes every atom of who we are!  But wait, there’s more!  God also declares us legally new because of what Jesus did to pay our sin-debt on the cross (Romans 4:7-8; 5:1; John 5:24; Colossians 2:14). He no longer treats us as our sins deserve but gives us grace and more grace (John 1:16; Romans 3:24; 5:20; 6:14).  In Christ, God has given us the character of His Son in exchange for our old, tired, defaulting-to-sin nature.  What a task, considering how hard and resistant we can be! 

     Over time, our understanding of God’s goodness to make such a trade grows.  Our “new” becomes newer!  Our developing understanding produces gratitude that energizes our new way of doing life.  Our hearts become softened, and the love of Jesus becomes our “master-passion,” as Spurgeon often preached. Instead of being complacent about our sin, we armor ourselves for war with it until wholeness and holiness become uppermost in our daily lives (Ephesians 6:11; Romans 13:12-14; Colossians 3:12-14).  People begin to sense a freshness, an energy, and the scent of clean, vibrant life about us, a life that grows sweeter and more robust over the years.  As we train to live out this new nature, we find ourselves thinking and acting, living and moving more and more as our Savior does. Because our life is flowing from Jesus, our Vine, we gradually will find ourselves no longer comfortable with our old, sin-driven life. (1 Corinthians 1:30; Galatians 3:27).  “Old” just doesn’t work any longer.

    When our old car finally died, my father finally scraped the finances to purchase a new-to-us, used car.  It didn’t burn oil!  It had a powerful engine, the best powerplant that Dodge Motors could make.  There were no holes in the upholstery and no dings and dents on its body.  Oh, the joy of that new car!  But over time, it also went the way of all vehicles, resting at last in the junkyard.  But we have a “new” from Father, Son, and Holy Spirit that stays ever fresh, ever renewed, and eternal when we place ourselves in Christ (2 Corinthians 4:16; Colossians 3:10).  In this “new,” the hope, youth, life, and the strength of Christ’s spirit in us is being renewed constantly (Psalm 94:19:103:5; 110:3; Isaiah 57:10; Revelation 21:5). In Christ, ‘new” becomes newer every day!

Prayer:
Holy Spirit, teach me how to live new.  Amen.

[Judges 6:12 NIV] “When the angel of the LORD appeared to Gideon, he said, The LORD is with you, mighty warrior.”

     Do you like action movies in which larger-than-life heroes take on the evils of the world?  Chapters 6-8 of Judges would make a great war movie. Still, Gideon, the warrior, and hero began his journey as a terrified, exhausted, vulnerable, bottom-of-the social-barrel farmer from the weakest tribe in Israel. God appears to him while he was hiding from terrible enemies, trying to thresh a little wheat.  Gideon was told God would empower him to fight major battles, but his first step was to “go in the strength you have” (Judges 6:14).  Gideon begins with small steps, first taking down the altar and idols in his daddy’s house.  Now he is about to face his first major battle with the Midianites, who have taken over the Israelite’s land, destroyed their crops and livestock, and taken many innocent lives.  So many challenges!

When you and I go to war against our spiritual enemies, we will face many of the same obstacles that confronted Gideon.  Here are three significant challenges.

[Isaiah 54:17 NIV] “No weapon forged against you will prevail, and you will refute every tongue that accuses you. This is the heritage of the servants of the LORD, and this is their vindication from Me, declares the LORD.”

Spiritual amnesia. God’s people in Gideon’s time had forgotten the incredible feats God had accomplished for them, thinking only they should have the credit for surviving their forty-year trek through the wilderness and their success at building prosperous lives in the promised land.  When we forget what God has done in our lives, our egos tend to become bloated, and we lose touch with God’s reality. When pride is our go-to attitude, a terrible fall in battle is awaiting us.

Failing to exercise the power of humility.  God stripped Gideon’s army down to 300, leaving them no choice but to lean on Him for victory (Joshua 7:4-7).  When God allows our self-reliance and strength to go down in an area, our level of humility and God-dependence almost always goes up.  When we feel equipped and competent, our humility tends to plummet into a pit of pride that hinders God’s work in our lives.  When using our gifts and talents, we need to be even more vigilant about guarding our humility.  We need to thank God for our gifts and talents and see our weaknesses as aids to developing our dependence on our Abba, our Daddy-God.  This attitude can move us from timid to triumphant.

Ignoring God’s weapons to use as our own. God’s weapons for Gideon were clay pitchers with burning torches inside.  When the pitchers were broken, and the incredible light broke forth, shocking and blinding the enemy.  When we let God break our pride and bypass our inadequate agendas, His power can win the battle.

     Gideon moved from a position of weakness to a place of strength because he stayed aware of his dependence on God to bring victory in the battle.  When God, his Commander in Chief, issued directions and battle plans, Gideon obeyed, grateful that he could move on God’s strength instead of being paralyzed by his limitations (Judges 6:14; 34a). The iron chariots of the Midianites were no match for the infinite power and strength of the King of Kings and Lord of Lords!

     What are the “iron chariots” you are facing?  Feeling shaky?  Read Hebrews 11 out loud to yourself and remember that those “heroes” had shaky knees and trembling hearts as well.  Stop a moment to remember the battles God using His weapons has brought you through. Confess your weakness and limitations to a caring, Father.  Ask the Holy Spirit for help to bring strength out of your weakness.  Marinate in Scriptures on how God sees you.  Ask safe others for help.  Like Gideon, you can learn to see yourself as God sees you: triumphant, not timid!

[2 Corinthians 4:7 NIV] 7 But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us.

What do you think when you hear the word “broken”?  Do you see images of shattered hearts, cracked bones, or betrayed trust?  On a positive note, might you consider Gideon’s broken jars of clay that let out the fire from the torches within, lighting the way to victorious battle (Judges 7:20)? What about the alabaster box that had to be broken so that the woman could pour the spikenard ointment on Jesus (Matthew 26:7)?  Don’t forget the outer shell on buried seeds of wheat that must be cracked open by the heat and humidity so that the life within can break forth (John 12:24).

    Scripture also paints us as a bunch of ordinary, very breakable clay pots, humble containers holding a cache of God’s “all-surpassing power” (2 Corinthians 4:7). The pot represents our outer shell, our natural way of thinking, choosing, feeling, and acting.  The “treasure” inside is the powerful, eternal life, the Holy Spirit, that entered us when we confessed our sin and our mess to Jesus and asked Him to live inside our hearts.  But for this powerful, resurrected life to pour forth, the jar of our natural self and ego must be broken.  Watchman Nee, a Chinese evangelist and Christian martyr of the mid-twentieth century, wrote that our focus should not be on obtaining the powerful life of Christ but instead on allowing His life to pour out of our clay jar.  He wrote:

“It is not that the life of the Lord cannot cover the earth but rather that His life is imprisoned by us. It is not that the Lord cannot bless the church but that the Lord’s life is so confined within us that there is no flowing forth. If the outward man remains unbroken, we can never be a blessing to His church, and we cannot expect the Word of God to be blessed by Him through us!”

The woman who anointed Jesus in Matthew 26 had her priorities straight.  Although the alabaster box was beautiful, she did not hesitate to break it, valuing the pure spikenard inside much more.  So, the questions we might ask ourselves are, “Do I treasure my importance, my appearance, my superior judgment, my bright brain, my way with words, my pile of pennies, or my set of rules, more than the life of Christ within me?  Am I an antique collector, a vase admirer, or do I want the fragrance of Christ within me released into the world?”

     For us to do the good God says is our purpose, our Abba, our Daddy-God has to break the clay of our old nature so that His light can shine forth to bless the world.  I confess that I sometimes become very ungrateful and uncomfortable when my Abba begins the process of breaking my pride, my misconceptions, my “stinkin’ thinkin’,” and my selfishness.  Defaulting to complaining when I don’t initially see how God can work my situation for good is a constant temptation.

    The key to responding to the brokenness that leads to blessing is to start each day with renewed surrender to a good, loving, just, and compassionate Father.  Watchman Nee prayed, “Lord, I offer myself without condition, without reservation, into Your hands.  Have your whole way through me.”  That prayer sustained him through twenty years of imprisonment until God released him by gathering this great preacher and writer to Himself in 1972.

   Will you let God break that tired, old, imprisoning shell of clay so that His mighty love and loving power can be released through you? Will you transform from being broken to being blessed? The timing of this life-long process is perfect for each of us, for God knows us well and will lovingly walk through refining fires with us.

Verses for Clay Pots:

• Proverbs 3:5-6
• Hosea 10:12
• 2 Corinthians 1: 8-10
• James 4:6
• Galatians 2:20
• Acts 20:24

     Did you know that the mind loves patterns?  The Bible is full of ways or themes that help us see God’s big picture for our lives.

     One of the most significant patterns in the Bible teaches us about God’s role and our role as we “work out our salvation” (Philippians 2:12).  As we grow, confusion about who is to do what job can create heavy burdens God never intended for us to carry.

God is the Provider for us

    In Genesis, four big ideas surface quickly about God’s job and our job.  The first pattern shows God as the Source and the Provider for Adam and Eve and all those who descend from them.  Adam and Eve’s job was to depend on God as the source. When we apply the hard lesson they learned to our own lives, we must not only be dependent on God as the source but against our default setting of self-sufficiency.  Our job is to recognize how limited we are and then turn to God and godly others to help us live a life that really works.  When we face the fact that we need both God and Christ-like mentors, we find a truth that frees us from the slavery and futility of trying to be the source of life for ourselves and others.

God is in control and we need to yield control to Him

    The second idea stitching Scriptures together is that God’s job is to be in control, and our job is to yield to God’s control of the world and ourselves. Adam and Eve learned this hard lesson when they decided to eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. They wanted to take control of their future rather than trusting God. Can you remember times when you tried to control everything, and everyone then found you had lost control of yourself? I can! When we push God off the throne to try to manage the big picture, we lose sight of ourselves and our responsibilities, leaking all kinds of destruction and dysfunction everywhere we go.

We get to experience the life that God has provided us, and God is the judge of that life.

    The third pattern in the Bible’s grand tapestry is the idea that God is the Judge of Life, and our job is to experience life. When Adam and Eve tried to take on God’s role, they could no longer experience the life God had designed for them. When we become judges, we can quickly become obsessed with the question, “Am I good enough?” Life can become a numbers game in which we incessantly rate ourselves and others on a scale God never meant for us to use.

God is the rule maker and as children of God, we must obey.

    The fourth big idea is that God made the rules; we are to obey them. When Eve listened to the serpent and ate the forbidden fruit, she disobeyed God’s laws. Since that happened, some severe consequences have lasted even to this day. Do you have some of God’s rules you would like to re-write? God’s mandates or guardrails were designed to protect us from death and destruction and to guide us to discover the wisdom that breathes life, fulfillment, and joy into the jobs we do.  Constantly redesigning life and making new rules is a form of slavery from which Jesus came to set us free.

     Doing God’s job is exhausting!  Relaxing into our God-given role will restore us to the restful, life-giving, loving design God created for us before Adam and Eve took a dreadful tumble trying to become “like God.” Will you let God be the boss and restore you to the job He created you to do?

Prayer:

Abba, my Daddy-God, I need Your help, or I will become self-sufficient, controlling, and judgmental.  I confess that I had written my own rules for life and became angry and disappointed when others didn’t follow them.  Help me surrender to You as the source of my life.  Help me connect to safe others. Holy Spirit, I need Your energy and Your coaching to help me return to the role God created for me.  Please give me Your fruit of self-control as I give up trying to do Your job and learn to do my own.  I want to do life Your way, Lord.  Thank you so much for being so patient with me.  Amen.

Bible Verses for Additional Study:

Philippians 3:12-14

Titus 2:14

1 Corinthians 6:19-20

Romans 8:39

[1 Thessalonians 2:13 NIV] 13 And we also thank God continually because, when you received the Word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as a human word, but as it actually is, the Word of God, which is indeed at work in you who believe.

      There are so many processes at work in us! Millions of cells are hard at work inside our bodies in a primarily invisible cycle that keeps us alive. But there is a greater force at work in us when we choose to open our Bibles and receive the life inside: the Word of God.  The Apostle Paul acknowledges this compelling fact when he writes to the new believers in Thessalonica. They recognize that their teachers are not just bringing human words to them but the very Word of God. Paul’s letter is not just ink on a page, but a living, compelling message inspired by God’s Spirit within him, and that message is doing a mighty work in those believers by turning them away from idols, to worship and serve a living, and true God.  Because God’s Word is working in them, they also begin to live lives of joy, a settled confidence that God is who He says He is and can do what He says He can do, even though they are enduring great persecution because of their faith. 

     Is this some sort of magic?  No!  The words written in the Bible have incredible power to transform us because God and His Word are inseparable. God is the author of His Word, so we can trust the authority of what we are reading.  God’s written Word is called “rhema.”  The rhema word, the “God-breathed word,” is what we receive when we open our Bibles and begin to seek God’s personal message of hope, life, and transformation (2 Timothy 3:16). The rhema Word of God is what Paul speaks about in Ephesians 6:17 when he says to pick of the “Sword of the Spirit.” The more we read, meditate, study, obey and pray through the Word, the more we become like Jesus, equipped to handle the challenges life throws at us daily. Jesus demonstrated this when Satan confronted Him in the wilderness by answering, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’” (Matthew 4:4) He quoted the rhema-word in Deuteronomy, and the authority of God’s Word caused His enemy to withdraw, a beaten foe.  The power of God’s Word can only defeat the doubt that can lead to outright denial of our faith. Got Word?

     But wait! There’s more!  An old saying reminds us, “Every time you read the Bible, the Bible is reading you.”  God’s Word penetrates where no surgeon’s scalpel can safely go, and no probing of a psychiatrist can reach to diagnose, heal, and create growth in us. Take a peek at the following ways God’s Word works in us:

• Growing faith (Romans 10:17). 
• A new birth (James 1:18; 1 Peter 1:22-23). 
• Food that sustains (1 Peter2:2; Hebrews 5:12-14). 
• Truth-filled minds (Psalm 119:130).
• Spiritual and physical healing (Psalm 107:17-20).
• Victory over sin (Psalm 119:9-11).
• Cleansing and holiness (Ephesians 5:25-27).
• The revelation of our inner self (James 1:23-25).  

The strength, peace, faith, hope, and love we need are waiting to be discovered between the pages of our Bibles.  As we test-drive God’s promises each day, our insides will finally start matching our outsides, and we can grow to do some good in this hurting world. 

Derek Prince suggested this pre-reading prayer:

“Lord, I believe this is Your Word.  I receive it as Your Word.  Let it work in me everything You sent it to do in every area of my being: spirit, soul, and body because I believe it.”

Written by Stephanie Murillo

For further study:

Psalm 119

Jeremiah 23:28-29

Luke 8:21

“Let your gentleness be evident to all.  The Lord is near” [Philippians 4:5].

     When was the last time you prayed for the fruit of gentleness to bloom in your life?  My first experience with this prayer came out of the trauma and a form of PTSD that developed in my early adolescence.  After being victimized by a family member, anxiety and depression dogged me for decades. In my forties, a dear friend led me toward a time of relinquishing my desire for a piece of revenge and justice, even though the person who hurt me was no longer alive.  The idea that I could have a gentle response toward this person and myself never occurred to me until the January afternoon I prayed with her for God to let me see this individual with what one of my other friends calls “soft eyes.”  Not long after a season of praying that prayer, God opened the heart of a distant relative who shared family stories of struggle in the early life of the one who wounded me.  I found compassion for this broken soul that helped me release this person into God’s loving hands.  God’s gentleness toward me during this period helped me forgive my relative and open my torn heart to God’s healing.

     We need gentleness because we are fragile!  God designed us for the Garden of Eden, not this harried and hurried existence out here in the tumbleweeds of a fallen world. Isaiah 40 tells us that God has the kind of strength needed to be gentle to us.  Sandwiched between the power of verses 15, 26, and 27 is the kindness of verse 11:

“He tends his flock like a shepherd; He gathers the lambs in his arms and carries them close to his heart; He gently leads those that have young.”  

  Gentleness Stoops Down 

     In his book, The Practice of Godliness, Jerry Bridges points out that “God continually stoops down to help us (Psalm 18:35), and He wants us to do the same; to be sensitive to the rights and feelings of others.”  Jesus modeled this gentleness constantly; He actively sought to make others feel at ease and rest in His presence (Matthew 11:28-30).  I tend to hold my breath around people who are not being gentle.  I now wonder, who might be holding their breath around me?

Gentleness Respects the Dignity of Others

      Respect is an essential component of gentleness.  When we seek to change a wrong opinion with persuasion and kindness instead of domination or intimidation, we use the Holy Spirit’s gift of gentleness. Remembering that “The Lord is near,” not only watching but offering help, may encourage us all to deal more gently with everyone, doing what is best for them.

Developing a Gentle Spirit

    We can train to develop a more considerate stance toward people.

1. Choose to enter training to develop a gentle spirit.  Are you willing to live without a rigid set of black and white rules?  Do you really want to care about people? You can pray for a soft heart and “soft eyes” with which to see those around you.
2. Ask honest people who know you well about how you come across to others.  Are you willing to accept feedback?  Are you ready to look at where you might be dogmatic and opinionated, blunt and abrupt, dominating and intimidating?  Do people feel judged by you?  The Holy Spirit wants to help you develop more loving strategies to deal with the people in your life.  You will need great strength for this, so ask boldly for God’s power to help you.
3. Pray for the Holy Spirit to open your eyes to specific instances in which a gentle spirit did not surface.  Ask for forgiveness and a do-over.
4. Read, think about, and memorize Scriptures on gentleness.

Prayer:

     Holy Spirit, please give me a gentle spirit that puts people at ease around me.  Help me value people enough to let You change me.  Amen.

For Further Study:

1 Timothy 4:5

Titus 3:2

James 3:17

Colossians 3:12

Galatians 5:22-23

Written by Stephanie Murillo