Be Willing to be Stretched & Challenged
- When life is good, it’s rather easy to see the goodness of God.
- When life is familiar, it’s quite possible to focus on everything that is good about the Lord.
- We life our voices and we raise our hands, praising the Father for His bounty.
BUT
- When life is hard, can we fix our eyes on Jesus, recalling God’s goodness?
- When life changes, can we cling to all that we allow ourselves to remember His faithfulness?
- We lift our voices and we raise our hands when life is good. Can we do the same when life changes below our feet, when everything we know seems different?
When Jesus was calling His twelve disciples and preparing them for the work He knew they were to do once He returned to heaven, after His death on the cross and His resurrection from the grave,
“And Jesus said to them,
(The Gospel According to Mark 2: 19-22 NASB)
“While the bridegroom is with them, the attendants of the bridegroom cannot fast, can they?
So long as they have the bridegroom with them, they cannot fast.
But the days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them,
and then they will fast in that day.
No one sews a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment;
otherwise the patch pulls away from it, the new from the old, and a worse tear results.
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 fresh wineskins.”
As an instructor, it is easy to expect my students to learn, to experience, and to put into practice new concepts they have never experienced. When they are challenged, I want them to persevere, to be stretched, and to be willing. As their instructor, I want my students to trust me, realizing that they will grow as they do.
Is this not exactly what the LORD wants for us?
Does the FATHER want us to cling to the easy or to the familiar, unwilling to grow as we should?
- Do not reject the new wine the MASTER is pouring into you.
- Do not pull away from where the LORD is taking you.
Do not desire the old you, because the NEW you, filled with HIS grace, mercy, and peace, will become so much more beautiful, more lovely, more . . . .
Therefore, do not wish for the old wineskins to remain. “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; . . .”
Allow the LORD to change you from within. & Allow every part of your life to be transformed.
Be willing to be Stretched & to be Challenged by the FATHER because He “puts new wine into fresh wineskins.”
- The MASTER knows our future, for HE IS GOD, the ONE WHO CONTROLS THE WIND & RAIN.
- The FATHER knows our past, for HE IS GOD, the ONE WHO CREATED US & NUMBERED OUR DAYS.
- The SAVIOR knows our present, for HE IS GOD, the ONE WHO MADE THE WAY FOR US TO BE SAVED.