Carved by God
Matthew 9:16, “But no one puts a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment ; for the patch pulls away from the garment, and a worse tear results. 17 “Nor do people put new wine into old wineskins ; otherwise the wineskins burst, and the wine pours out and the wineskins are ruined ; but they put new wine into fresh wineskins, and both are preserved.”
I must admit that the idea for this devotion did not come from me. Well, none come from me; they are all inspired by the word of God, but my Pastor Scott Mcinnis deserves some of the credit. Yesterday, he spoke on how we MUST be changed by God before we are any use to Him. We must get rid of the “the old wineskin” before God can fill us with His New Wine. To be honest we don’t even have to get rid of the old stuff; all we have to do is let God cut it out of our lives.
We are similar to the pumpkins that people carve during this time of year.(I’m sorry if that comparison offends you, but it’s pretty close!) Like the pumpkin, we just offer ourselves to God and allow Him to shape us into whatever image He chooses.
When we are chosen by God to receive His light and life we are filled with all types of sin and ugliness in our lives, but God reaches His Hand into our lives, and begins to remove the unusable parts from our life. When He gets rid of enough of the nastiness inside us then He replaces it with the light of His Son, Jesus Christ!
His Light inside us continues to “burn away” the ungodly, useless parts that remain, and shines forth from us displaying to others that we have Him inside!
_________________________________________
Father God, I thank You for carving me into the image that You desire, and I ask that You remind me that even though the “carving process” may be painful; the new creation that You make will be infinitely more beautiful.
In Jesus’ name, Amen
________________________________________
Yes, You Can Ministry 