Authored by Martha Dodd
Read: 2 Corinthians 5:17
“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: the old has gone, the new is here!”
Reflect:
During lockdown, as in-person schooling shifted to online learning, my granddaughter participated in the daily online morning routines of her Grade 1 classroom. One morning, the question of the day caused her some distress. The teacher asked, “Would you rather have flying power or invisibility and why?” With her microphone on mute, my granddaughter passionately explained to her parents that she couldn’t possibly choose between the two, because she wanted flying power, AND invisibility, AND super speed, AND super strength!
In expressing these longings, I think she may have been on to something.
The promise of 2 Corinthians 5:17 is that when we trust in Christ, it’s not that we become better people; we become new creations – not improvement, but transformation.
In his book, Mere Christianity, C.S. Lewis says it this way: “God became man to turn creatures into sons: not simply to produce better men of the old kind, but to produce a new kind of man. It is not like teaching a horse to jump better and better but turning a horse into a winged creature. Of course, once it has got its wings, it will soar over fences which could never have been jumped…”
When we turn to the Lord, we receive and experience the great power and mighty strength of God by the indwelling presence and enabling of the Holy Spirit – power to transform us from the inside out, power made perfect in our weakness (2 Cor 12:9), and power to bear much fruit (John 15:5).
Ask:
Is there an area of my life where I’ve been settling for a minor adjustment when what I really need is transformation?
Prayer:
Lord, thank you that You can do immeasurably more than I could ever ask for or imagine, according to Your power at work within me. (Ephesians 3:20) I invite you to come into the areas of my life where I am feeling weak and inadequate and turn them into strengths. (Hebrews 11:34b) Help me to yield to the hidden, transforming work of your Holy Spirit today as I love, trust and obey you.
