The Me I Used to Be

Scripture:
"No one sews a patch of un-shrunk cloth on an old garment; otherwise the patch pulls away from it, the new from the old, and a worse tear results." Mark 2:21

Observation:
Let's suppose that I have an old coat that I really like. One day a hole appears in this coat. Not just a little, moth sized hole but a huge, my kids got a hold of the scissors size hole. To make matters worse, they did it in the dead of the coldest winter anyone could remember. Every step I made I would be able to fill the cold chill of the winter air penetrating the hole and chilling my body.

Then, out of the blue, a man approaches me and hands me a brand new coat. Not just any coat but a mac-daddy, extreme weather, four-in-one type of coat. Upon returning home with my new coat, would it make any sense whatsoever for me to pull out the same scissors used by kids to destroy my old coat, cut a patch from my new coat, and sew it to the new one?

No, that would be stupid. That is the illustration that Jesus is giving here. The religious people of the day were trying to take what He was doing and apply it to the old law they were living according to.

Application:
I get what God is saying to me this morning, but I am struggling with the application. God is telling me that I am trying to find a new revelation of Him that will help patch up the old me, but that what He wants to do is give me a new me.

Prayer:
Father, I am stuck this morning. I can guess at what you are trying to teach me in the passage from Mark, but it is foolish to do so. Your word instructs me in James 1:5 that if I lack wisdom, ask of You, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to me. That is my prayer to you today.


Your word says in 2 Corinthians 5:17 that I am a new creature, that the old things have passed away and that new things have come. Your Word also says in Ephesians 4:22-24 that, in reference to my former manner of life, I am to lay aside my old self, that I be renewed in the spirit of my mind, and put on the new self.

That is my desire this morning. I do not want to waste any of the life You have given to me trying to patch the old me. The me I used to be is not worth saving. I want to be the new me Your word talks about. Help me to know how to do this.

There are things that I need to lay aside. Hurts, habits and hang-ups are easily identified in my life, but the process of laying them aside it difficult.

I need to be renewed in the spirit of my mind. You gave me a pure heart the day I surrendered to You, but man do I have a messed up head. Some days my mind feels like a library of video tape which continues to plays clips of my past. There are things I have done, places I have been, images I have seen, people I have hurt, and many other things floating around on these tapes. They wear me out. I ask this morning that You teach me how to renew my mind.

Finally I ask that You help me put aside the man I used to be. I am afraid of that man. Memories of him hurt me, yet I fight against returning to him everyday. There are still aspects of my former life that cling to me. There are even days that it is tempting to look back and want to return to him. I need Your help in fully laying aside all that I used to be and in putting on the me You intend for me to be.