You Are Not Who You Were
“Because you are in Christ you are a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!” 2 Corinthians 5:17
Nothing brings out my sinful nature like rush hour traffic. One minute I’m cruising along, totally fine, and the next I’m stopped dead in the middle of the highway, huffing and puffing and generally ticked off. I want to be moving along, getting things done, and on my way to my destination.
I wish I could say that this impatience is confined to my car (how nice would that be!) but no such luck. Waiting is hard no matter who you are. It’s not fun to wait for your broken arm to heal, for Christmas break to start, to be married, or even for camp to come around again.
So often I wish for something even greater - for peace, for the struggle with sin to be over, to finally feel okay. Do you wish for that sometimes? That’s a good desire - you and I were created for that “something better” that we long for. We weren’t created for all of this anxiety and insecurity and pain.
But God promises us two things that inform our impatience. First of all - that day WILL come. It is coming! We are one day closer to heaven than we were yesterday.
He will wipe away every tear from our eyes and all of this struggle will be no more. You won’t always struggle with the sin you struggle with now, and because of something we call sanctification, He is making you more like himself every day. He is changing you, even now, even when the waiting is hard.
Secondly, like we see in this exclamation from 2 Corinthians, because of something called justification - he has already made you new. Notice that exclamation point? This is exciting guys, and a big deal! The moment you accepted Jesus into your heart, you became someone new, someone who God can look on with a smile because of what his son did on the cross.
You are made new - you are right with God RIGHT NOW, this very moment. Despite the struggle, despite the impatience of waiting, even if it doesn’t feel like it all the time, you are not who you were. Let that sink in today. He has made you a new creation, you are justified with him, so the waiting is not in vain.