A New You This Year

 “You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.  Therefore each of you must put off falsehood and speak truthfully to his neighbor, for we are all members of one body. ‘In your anger do not sin.’ Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry, and do not give the devil a foothold.”  Ephesians 4:22-27 (NIV) 

These Holy Spirit inspired Words of God were written by the Apostle Paul to the believers in The Church at Ephesus.  He wrote to encourage them to act like the new men which they had become after they accepted Christ as their personal savior.  He told them to put away their old sinful ways and to treat everyone in a Christ-like manner.

We need to understand that we cannot obtain a better outcome in our lives if we continue to do things in the same old way.  Getting different results will require that we perform different actions.  If we want things in our lives to change, then we should start by changing ourselves.  The best change that we can make is to allow The Lord God to rule our lives.  God said that He will give us a new heart and a new spirit if we submit to Him. (Ephesians 36:25-27)  Just like the children of Israel, we have not walked in His statutes, neither executed His judgments, but we have done like the manners of the heathen that are around about us. (Ezekiel 11:12)  We are not supposed to act like the worldly people that are around us.  We are in this world but not of it.  We are different and we should act like it.  When we accepted Christ as our personal savior, we became a new creature. (2 Corinthians 5:17)  We need to ask for forgiveness and renew our commitment and our minds. (Romans 12:1-2)  We need to ask God to put a new spirit in us, or renew His Spirit within us, so that we may be more Christ-like in the new year.