NEW YEAR, NEW YOU
2 Corinthians 5:11-21
A few days more, and we will be in year 2026. A lot of new things are being put in place for the New Year: new clothing; new shoes; new houses etc. As you do your preparations for the year, there’s something new you should consider: a NEW YOU. Yes a NEW YOU. The bible says: Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature, old things are passed away, behold, all things are become new 2 Corinthians 5:10. This quoted scripture used to be the credo of every born again believer in the early days of Pentecostal and evangelical revival in this nation. It guided our thinking and our actions. By the reason of it, we know that we no longer belonged to the old order of sinfulness. We become strangers to old traditions, habits, relationships and all that characterized our lives before we came to the Lord. It enabled us to live separate from the world. It even gave us strength against diseases and ailments that bedeviled us as unbelievers as we claimed our healings by faith as new creatures.
But today, it is as if this verse is no longer in the scriptures or that the word has changed in meaning. People who claim to be born again still go about as before. Nothing appears to change. They still go about with the old nature; their yearnings, habits, relationships, health status, temperament etc. remains the same. Nothing is new. We must all come to the consciousness once again. You are a new creature. The old you is dead. A new you is alive. There must be tangible and remarkable difference evident to all around you that you are a believer and that you are no longer what you used to be. If you don’t realize this, your faith and growth in the Lord will be hindered and eventually stifled.
When a man is born again, something went on inside you. The old, satanic nature went out of you. And the very life and nature of God came into you! God created you as a brand-new. The man on the inside – the real you, which is a spirit man – has already become a new man in Christ. How? You may ask. This analogy will help. Consider your body as a house that you (your spirit man) lives. When a tenant vacates a house and another one moves in, it is still the same house. But soon, the house begins to reflect the nature of new occupant. Furniture is changed; restructuring takes place and soon neighbours begin to notice that a new occupant is in place.
In the same vein, we must notice the impact of a new you in your life. You must stop looking at yourself from the physical or the natural standpoint. Look at yourself from the spiritual stand point. See yourself as a new creature in Christ. That is how God sees you! Think like a new person. Live as new –above old sinful. Nature, habits, fears etc. Change old unprofitable and toxic relationship and engage in new inspiring ones. Let a new you emerge to the glory of God. We admonish you to enter the New Year on a clean slate. Be new. Let holiness or righteousness be your credo.Victories await you in Jesus Name.
MEDITATION/CONFESSION: I am born again. I am a new (wo)man. Old things – fears, sins, sickness, lack etc. – are passed away in my life. Behold all things became new for me. I am a new creature in Jesus Name.
