Believing that many of us are being moved by the Spirit of God into new territory, I wanted to offer intercession on our behalf. The intense pull between the safety of familiarity and the zeal for new horizons can leave us stretched & sore inside. We want but we fear. We are motivated but caution in our hearts turns into overcomplication in our minds. We are weary of our comfort zones but we are hesitant to venture out into territory that has not been mapped out on a visible grid for us. We need courage and wisdom, two items I have been requesting from God for over a year. The passage and prayer below serve to remind us that there are times in our journey where the Master will not allow us to remain connected with those things that we have familiarized ourselves with in the past. Sometimes your future must be approached with absolutely nothing in hand. Worn garments and stretched wineskins will not work in the next chapter of your life.
Mark 2:21-22 – “No one sews a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment. If he does, the patch tears away from it, the new from the old, and a worse tear is made. And no one puts new wine into old wineskins. If he does, the wine will burst the skins—and the wine is destroyed, and so are the skins. But new wine is for fresh wineskins.”
“God grant us the courage not to spiritually hoard the worn garments of our religious past. Help us not to continue to attempt to patch it up with strips of new cloth while clinging sentimentally to the old. Help us to trust You as You lead us to throw away the old and to embrace the new. As well, Father, deliver us from our treasuring of those former wineskins that marvelously served their purposes for former generations. Deliver us from our fondness for relics. We have asked You for the new wine and it is Your desire to give it. Help us to understand what Jesus meant when He declared that the new wine He gives will never be contained by old wineskins. Help us to consider that He taught that both the new wine and the old skin will be lost if we continue to attempt this. We need wisdom and courage to receive the new wineskin and the new wine. Help us to turn loose of that which has served its purpose, no matter how long we have held on to it.”
I am a day “late” reading this, but God used my schedule to deliver this on time.
My old skin is not a denominational tradition to be shed. Mine is the need for approval…and it will drain every stitch of life right outta me. There have been two years worth of torn patches…and that is EXCELLENT.
I seemed to have needed others to agree with my every thought, else I begin to be certain I am wrong. This made for one VERY dim light.
When I walk, as humbly as I can, even feebly, according to the Word, I am learning IT is correct regardless of how I am received.
I have had more opposition from those who “believe” in God (not Christ) than from complete pagans. So I have coffee with pagans daily…Billy Joel was right “sinners are much more fun.” However, they are headed for hell itself as they scorch their path on earth. They need believers to stand with Christ FOR them. God is building my frame to stand, regardless of the audience. For now, pagans appear to be my venue.
I pray for wisdom and courage everyday. I like an excerpt from that prayer best..”taking this world, AS HE DID (Christ), one day at a time.”
Jesus was rejected. Yet he really, REALLY, is my PERFECT Cornerstone. That just IS. I am learning to forfeit others’ approval and simply set my face like a flint and stand in Him.
Thank you Bro. God is doin’ a new thing!
“Worn garments and stretched wineskins will not work in the next chapter of your life.”
Wow … that’s a challenge that all too many of us (I guess) find it hard to contemplate. We prefer it safe and comfortable – and therefore (probably) a little stale and flat.
To borrow the title of John Ortberg’s book ; “if you want to walk on water you have to get out of the boat” … and most of us are not really that willing to say “Lord, if it be thou, bid me come unto thee on the water” (Matt 14:28)
But really that (preferring comfort to stepping out) is just disobedience …
Keep up the challenge, brother!