Earlier, I was on Instagram when I saw a post of someone throwing out old rubbish and clearing out the house. It is her way of clearing away clutter and stuff that has been building up. It was her cathartic measure to clear away the pains and difficulty of last year. It was a fresh start. It was a new beginning. Out with the old and in with the new.
I have been ruminating on this sentence for a while now, ‘Out with the old and in with the new’. For me it was not about my home, but about my soul and my way of living. It’s about the way I think and behave and speak. The way I choose to face life and solve issues and problems. I have so many old ways left (and will till I die) but this is no excuse for not making way for new ways.
The old ways of living for me often rear their ugly heads, and can at times, rule over me. The old way of trying to be heard… so I shout. The old way of feeling like I am not seen… so I seek to be seen in some foolish way. The old way of feeling intimidated by something or someone… so I judge them before they can judge me. The old way of trying this or that to get what I need often rears its ugly head.
Colossians 3:5 instructs us to “put to death anything that belongs to our earthly nature.” In other words, throw out anyways that belong to the old self; the non-new self. Get it out, purge it out! The message calls this earthly nature, “a life shaped by things and feelings instead of by God.” It’s time to get out of our lives the ways that are led by things and feelings and instead shape ourselves into the ways of God.
It’s a new year and it can begin in the new ways and not the old. Lay aside these habits of old and bring in the new ways of God. Walking in the newness of life is not something that Christ only offers us one time. We have the chance to walk in new life everyday if we choose.
Blessings,
Dani