Getting Ready for a New You

Good morning. My name is Leslie Stevens, and I'd like to welcome you to day 12 of our 21 day devotional, Restart Your Heart, with the Pentecostals of the Murfreesboro. I'm glad that you could join us today for this devotional. Each day someone new will walk us through one day of the devotional, and I encourage you, if you haven't already, go back and catch up on the past few days. And it's been a great devotional, and I hope everybody's been enjoying it.

You will notice that today we're a little later than normal posting this video. And Pastor, if you're out there, I do apologize. It's been kind of a crazy morning for us here in the Stevens household. However, here we are nonetheless, so we're gonna get into today's devotional.

Today the title was "Getting Ready for a New You." And so Isaiah chapter 43, verse 18, says, "Do not remember the formal things, nor consider the things of old. Behold, I will do a new thing."

One of the many things I love about our Lord is that He desires to do a new and beautiful thing in our life. Constantly reminded this each and every day, as he gives us a new morning, new mercies. He's a guy who makes new things, that guy who makes beautiful things, and I love that about him. I love the fact that he can come into lives that are messed up and full of sin and full of decay and destruction, and he just comes in and has a way of putting together loose pieces in our lives. And he sees those — those pieces that are broken, and he picks them back up, and as a — as only he can't, he molds our lives back together.

I love the — the scripture there. It says, don't even remember the form of things, but — but know that God is doing a new thing in our life. Regardless of who you are or who you were before Christ, our God's love is so great and his — His grace is so sufficient, that scripture says, if anyone is in — in Christ, he is a new creature. Old things have passed away. Behold, all things have become new. We're new creatures in Christ.

I know that for a lot of you, this is not something brand new. But I do wonder, when Paul was writing this to the church in Corinth, did he they tell himself, you know, "This sounds really nice, that were new creatures in Christ," but in the back of his mind think to himself, "Well, anyone really believe that they're a new creature?" You know, it's easy to say. It's easy — you know, as apostolic, we obviously believe in John 3, where it talks about the earth — yeah, John 3 talks about the new birth plan. But it's — sometimes it's easier to hear those words into here, that we have a new life and a brand-new start, than it is to actually believe it. Because the idea of shaking off our past mistakes, or our guilt, or our shame — it's — it's nice thing to believe that. Sometimes to actually follow through with that, it's pretty challenging. And in fact, the author of the devotion, he reminds us that the enemy of our minds will try hard to permanently ink us with painful memories and failures from our past.

And so we're left with this battle going on in our mind — a battle of what I would like to say is God's truth versus the enemy's lies about us. And this is a battle that we all face, no matter if you're just getting into church or you've been in church your entire life. Something that we battle is this concept of: do we believe today the report that comes from the Word of God about who we are, or do we believe that the feelings, or whatever was going on our mind, that maybe the enemy, our adversary, is trying to plant inside us, to get us off of what God has for us on that particular day?

Paul, I think, knew that we would struggle with this battle in our mind. I think he knew that we would struggle with this constant conflict of God's truth versus the enemy's lies about us. And so he says, a second Corinthian chapter 10, verse 3: "For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought — every thought — into captivity to the obedience of Christ."

Ah, I know that it's hard sometimes to believe what the Word of God says about us, according to maybe how we feel, or what the world is trying to tell us who we are. But there's something so powerful in the scripture, that if we can truly bring every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ — if we can take every negative thought, if we can take every negative opinion about ourselves, and — and subject that to obedience to Christ and what the word says about us — then I truly believe that we can become that new creature, that we can be — have that new identity in Christ.

Paul said in Philippians chapter 4, verse 8 — he says, "And now that your brothers and sisters, one final thing: fix your thoughts on that which is true and honorable and right and pure and lovely and admirable. Fix your thoughts." Paul was in a prison when he wrote this. If anyone had an excuse to have a negative thought, I'm pretty sure Paul was that guy. But he was so convinced that he had to take every single one of his thoughts, capture it to the obedience of Christ, and then have fixed his thoughts on those things which were heavenly, and not so much on what's going on in earth.

And so the day, I would — I would encourage you, as I kind of wrapped up this devotion, and as we're going into the Easter season, and we're restarting our heart, starting our minds, you're starting our focus in our relationship with God — I would encourage you to do this. Love about to instruct you, instruct you. And it's — it's one of those things: it's easy to hear, that's a lot harder to do, but if you practice it, you'll actually see a lot of fruit from it. And that is this: when you're hearing the lies from the enemy about you, what I would ask for you to do is to find truth in the word god that combats that lot that's being said about you. I would encourage you to find scripture that speaks truth over your life. And I would encourage you to write it down. I would encourage you to think about it. I would encourage you to confess that Scripture over your life until you believe it. You need to write it. You need to think it. You need to confess it over you, until you believe it.

There's a battle going on in our mind, but scripture is what we use to wage war against our own minds. Paul says we don't — we don't walk in the flesh, and we don't go to war according to the flesh. But there is a spiritual battle taking place, and we have to take those thoughts captive to the obedience of Christ. So take them to the captivity of Christ. Take them to obey Jesus Christ through his Scripture. Take those negative thoughts, and take it to him. Take it to his word, and say, "I know iii hear what the enemy's saying about me. I hear what my adversary is saying about me. But let's just hold the fullness. Let's see what the Word of God says about me, see what Jesus Christ says about me. And whatever it is that he says, I wholeheartedly believe that's what's true about you and I." So whatever his Word of God says — what are the promises of the Word of God says about us — we need to think it. We need to write it down. We need to think it. We need to confess it over our lives, and meditate on that verse until we believe it. It's a powerful tool that we could use and apply to our lives on a daily basis.

And I pray that as we're restarting our heart and getting ourselves focused on — on what God says about us, that you would truly allow his word to help you win the battle that's taking place in your mind.

I do, again, I apologize for the delay start today. I've got both children in here at the house, and neither of them actually came over on the Facebook Lobby, which is half of a miracle there. I don't say itself. But let's pray. Let's pray for our minds. Let's pray for this day.

Jesus guy, we love you. Thank you so much for this day that you've given us, God. Thank you for another Friday. Can I pray, Lord Jesus, that you would be with each and every person that comes in contact with this video today? Can I put it to it, strengthen them. I pray, God, that you would bless their lives. I pray, God, for — for favor today in their world, god. I pray, Lord Jesus, that as we continue in this devotion, and get our — our hearts and our minds ready for what the Easter season brings, I pray that she would have enable us, God, to — to truly practice into — into our lives what's been taught today, and to hold those negative thoughts captive in our lives, God, and make them obedient to you, Jesus. Allow us, God, to not just take on this battle in our mind, but help us to prevail. God, help us to prevail with the Word of God, the truth that's found in your word, God. Lord, we give you all the praise and all the glory. I pray that you be with each of us today, in Jesus' name. Amen.

Thank you today for joining me on what is day 12 of our devotion. Again, I asked, if you have not looked back at all the other videos and devotion, please do so today. You can do a couple of day and catch up very easily. And I will ask them to join us tomorrow at 7 a.m. — at 7 a.m. — as we discussed day 13 of the devotion. The subject is "His Loving-Kindness." Thank you so much for joining me today. We'll see you tomorrow. God bless.