How many times in your life have you tried to reinvent yourself, tried to make yourself into a new person? I mean, just the number of different diets I’ve been on alone is enough to make your head spin. As humans, we are always trying to make ourselves into something different and new to “fit in” with what seems to be the “cool kids.” As a teenager you want so desperately to fit in with the crowd, and you think that as an adult it will be better. Why doesn’t anyone tell you that the feeling of wanting to fit in never goes away? You want to be liked and included with your work friends. You want the people at church to include you in the invitation to go out to lunch after service. You want the other moms at the Little League field to let you sit with them. This feeling of wanting to be made into someone everyone will like seems to never go away.
When we take on Christ and become a Christian, we are immediately accepted into God’s family. In 2 Corinthians 5:17, it tells us, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.” When we accept Christ and truly become His, we are made into a new and perfect creature. This doesn’t mean that everything in our lives will fall into place and be perfect, but it does mean that God has taken us and is making us into a perfect being. What a peaceful feeling knowing that we don’t have to struggle to find somewhere to fit in anymore. We have already been made perfect.
Sometimes we find ourselves in a season of despair and lost hope. When you are in a place of sadness, it is difficult to always see how God is using that time to perfect you. My brother has been dead almost a year now, and I still find myself in that hospital room. I can’t seem to move past that feeling of helplessness and sadness as I watched him slip away and go into the arms of Jesus. I know that God will use my deep sorrow for my good and maybe to help others who also find themselves in the grips of sadness. Isaiah 40:31 tells us, “But they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.” This time of sadness I find myself in, is the perfect time to sharpen my love for Christ and to learn to rely solely on God to sustain me.
I gave the eulogy at my brother’s memorial service, and I ended with one of my favorite passages in the Bible, 2 Corinthians 4:16-18, “Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.” Even in the darkest times in our lives, God is making us into a new person. He is using our darkest times to mold and perfect us. He is making us into a new creation, one perfect for our eternal home with Him in heaven.
Ephesians 4:22-24 tells us, “To put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.” When we decide to commit our life to God, we must put away our old ways of life and allow him to mold us into a “new self.” We tend to think this just happens when you first become a Christian, but as I have found out this past year, it can also be used to help mold us into the person we are truly meant to be. Just as we grow and change
in this life, our spiritual life also is a constant time for growth and change to help mold us into what Christ truly wants us to be.
This week’s recipe is perfect for all the graduation parties coming up this month. It is a yummy classic vegetable dip that uses whipped cottage cheese as the base instead of sour cream. This swap alone drastically increases the protein and gives the dip yummy, extra flavor. My family loves it and I’m sure yours will too.
“Forget the former things; do not dwell in the past. See I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland” (Isaiah 43:18-19).
April 18, 2025
