Embracing the New

Reading: Mark 2

"No one puts new wine into old wineskins; otherwise the wine will burst the skins, and the wine is lost and the skins as well; but one puts new wine into new wineskins." Mark 2:22

Evaluation:

A wineskin was a goatskin that was sewn together at the edges to form a watertight bag. New wine, expanding as it aged, stretched the wineskin. New wine, therefore, could not be put into a wineskin that had already been stretched, or the taut skin would burst.

In this passage Christ is addressing the Pharisees whose hearts had become rigid like old wineskins. They could not accept faith in Jesus because it would not be contained by their man-made ideas or rules.

Application:

Wanting God to move in my life sounds good on the surface. Normally I approach God with a question, concern, pain or desire. My hope is that He will move in a manner that miraculously puts to rest the issue at hand. In my mind, I will then be left to live a better life and my faith in God will have been strengthened. That sounds good on the surface but it is a false belief around what my relationship with God should be.

It is clear to me that my heart is the wineskin. If I apply the teaching of Christ from this passage it is critical that I remember Jesus does not desire to just give me the new wine I seek; He desires to give me a new wineskin as well. In fact, He cannot give the new wine until I allow him to give me a new wineskin. A transplant of heart will always proceed a major movement of God in my life.

Prayer:

Father I sense two things You want me to understand this morning. My first move towards You is almost always selfish. Something concerns me and I run to You with it. I genuinely want the thing weighing on me to be resolved but I want it to be resolved in the context of my current reality. I want the world around me to change for the better while I hold tight to the attitudes, thoughts, beliefs, and behaviors that are comforting to me.

Second, I normally approach You thinking that if You move in my life then I will change. I really want to rest and trust in You but I want evidence or relief first. Calm my circumstances, then I can rest. Deal with my lack, then I will be content. Move in my prayers, then I will have faith.

Both of these things are the same in that they are my finite mind trying to control and manipulate an infinite God. It is my pride, stubbornness, and lack of faith in its purest form and I confess it to You this morning.

I pray first thanking You for Your forgiveness and second to celebrate the work You are doing in my heart. I pray that You empower me deep in my spirit to sense and embrace the new wineskins You are bringing into my life.