That is because the hardest battle is “becoming new”. Becoming new means denying oneself what we used to be. Changing our Belief System can be very hard to do.
Meaning if you used bad language, you know Jesus didn’t, and that bad language offends God and other people, it even alienates people, so we see the wisdom and common sense in removing that bad habit from our life. (but people pridefully refuse to change, so they refuse to learn, and they never become new – they are part-time religious and they suffer for it, they also give God a bad name).
Like an onion we peal away the things that society taught us, and underneath we find the genuine gem that we were born to be.
It is the process of change (like the caterpillar to the butterfly) that we struggle as old things are cast away, and all things are to become new.
When you become “Saved” the work begins. The Potter gets to work, and He picks up the broken parts of your soul and heals you. This is a painful process, it hurts, we must discover what wrongs society (that means family, friends, school etc) taught us, and what wrong opinions we have, and that we have idolized people, music, material things etc and we find that this must all change.
The Bible mentions the painful process of purifying silver, as we are purified from our old soul (the old person) to become new. It is not easy but we must trust God that His will for us is best for our own life.
Many churches have those that started to change and then they refused to give up pride, idols, material desires, coveting, lusts, greed, etc, and they are known as church hypocrites.
Some people come to Christ and become self righteous, arrogant as religious people, and that proves that they are clinging to the old ways.
If we cling to the past we will suffer much. The only way to succeed is to give our all to God and submit.
Another way of looking at it is that the past showed you that life was hard and miserable, and you know with God there will be much struggle, but with God the end result is a good strong confident person. With God there are rewards.
All the best from James Martin Sandbrook.
Monday, 27 July 2015, 6:56:47 AM.