Week of Prayer – Day 6 Unchanged?

Keith Waters Christian Comment, Prayer 3rd March 20177th March 2017 1 Comment

Reading – 2 Corinthians 5:17

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.

Those who know me will know that I have an eclectic taste in music from classical to punk, rock to soul, jazz to folk. And as I was thinking and praying through what to post this morning, I found myself thinking of the lyrics to a classic punk song (oh dear I can almost hear you groan…) they go like this:

“my daddy was a bankrobber
but he never hurt nobody
he just loved to live that way
and he loved to steal your money”

Now I’m not going to suggest that within this lyric there is some deep theological point, I don’t think Joe Strummer went in for much theology, but I do see parallels with the way some of us might think at stages in our Christian journey. You see there is such a danger of us living a life that is unchanged from the life we had before we were set free by Christ. Our text reminds us that a Christian is a new creation in Christ, and if we are new creations, we ought not to be using excuses from our old lives to stay in that rut that we were in before Christ redeemed us. Do you ever hear yourself saying, when you’ve acted in a less than Christian way, “well I can’t help it, that’s just the way I am”. The point is, for Christians that’s not true, we can’t say that, because our bad attitude is part of the way we were, not the way we are… we are new creations! Will we mess up, yes, but when we confess our sins Christ forgives us, restores us, and keeps on that miraculous work of recreating us in His image.

Reflect: today and everyday consider how profound a truth it is that: if you have accepted Christ as Lord and Saviour, you are being recreated in His image.

Act: in your prayer time today: give thanks to Christ for that freedom won for us at immense cost to Him, and take time to consider with Him which part of that old person you’ll take apart together, so that He can further that great exciting, fulfilling work of recreation in you.