There is a certain recent fashion trend i find intriguing (when worn by others and not me 🙂) – ripped Jean’s. It’s where a new pair of jeans,could be pants, a dress or skirt torn or shredded and sold as they are. In fact the more torn or ripped it is, the trendier it’s perceived to be. If out of curiosity you check some online clothes stores, it might surprise you that the price is higher for the more tattered jeans outfits .In fact these have a name- distressed Jean’s. One might think the wearer escaped unscathed from being a meal for some ferocious animal.
Fashion trends aside, a tattered garment may by default be because it is worn out and old. Seeing how ripped some Jean’s are, it’s almost impossible to fix or patch up the tears.
Would a new piece of jean fabric be suitable to patch up a tear or a hole in an old pair of Jean’s?
Given, God is always doing something new in our lives. Do we step into the new with our old self?
Many that followed Jesus including the pharisees and the disciples of John the Baptist had not realized that the coming of Jesus was an announcement of a new paradigm. They were stuck in the old. The familiar. The more comfortable kind of teaching or practice of religion. You see, John the Baptist had been sent ahead to prepare the way for Jesus.So we see them ask a question that seemed to have troubled them.
Mathew 9:14-16 reads Then the disciples of John came to Him, saying, “Why do we and the Pharisees fast often,[d] but Your disciples do not fast?”
And Jesus said to them, “Can the friends of the bridegroom mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them? But the days will come when the bridegroom will be taken away from them, and then they will fast.
No one puts a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment; for the patch pulls away from the garment, and the tear is made worse.
Jesus’ answer, draws us to our lesson on stepping into the new and the right mindset to have. Using a new piece of jeans fabric to patch up a tear in the old pair of Jean’s will reap the old apart.
To help them better understand what He meant ,He gave them another example in
Mathew 9:17
Nor do they put new wine into old wineskins, or else the wineskins break, the wine is spilled, and the wineskins are ruined. But they put new wine into new wineskins, and both are preserved.”
We can draw some lessons from His response:-
1.Discern when you have stepped into the new
2.When God is doing something new in your life,shed the old mind set and embrace the new.
3.Match your new with the new.Not doing so and you will destroy the old and will loose the new.
You and I can be so used to the old that we continue with the old ways but choose to make room for the new thing God is doing in your life.
But how do we do that? Romans 12:1-2 says ,I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service.
And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.
We ought to change our thinking as we step into the new. So while Romans 12:2 tells us about having our minds renewed. Proverbs 23:7 says..For as a man thinketh in his heart, so is he.Isn’t that interesting?We think with our minds but this verse talks about a man thinking with his heart.Doesn’t that then mean that we change both our hearts and minds?
So as we read in Romans 12:1-2 we can only be transformed after we have presented our bodies.That is all of our being to God as a sacrifice. Only then can there be an alignment of in our hearts and our minds and indeed in all that we are.
The second part of Romans 12:2 which is a study on its own is deeply profound! That a renewed mind is then able to prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.
Stepping into the new is a constant. God is always doing something new.Maybe we can say stepping into the new is cyclical. Just observe the seasons.You could be coming to an end of a cold season and the sun will be out soon.You might therefore be looking forward to going out and enjoying the warmth and radiance that comes with the sun. It’s summer in other parts of the planet but soon temperatures will start falling.
The same way that you have to put away your winter jacket and boots when the sun starts shining and temperatures rise,don’t step into any season with the same mindset. Get new wine skins for the new wine. As we spend time in the scriptures and prayer,God will show us where He needs us to change our thinking .He will transform and renew our minds and hearts.We can then embrace the new because not too long after He will usher us into yet another new paradigm. Don’t get stuck with your ripped jeans,get a new one 🙂
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