New Wine

I hope you had a wonderful Easter with your family. I am so grateful for all Jesus did to rescue and redeem me!!!!!

I was reading in Luke and came to 5:37 where Jesus tells the story about pouring new wine in old wineskins. Jesus mentions that if you pour new wine into old wineskins they will burst. You will lose the wine and ruin the wineskins, and that you need to pour new wine into new wineskins. Which makes sense, right?
Here’s where I think it gets interesting…in v.39 Jesus says this:

“And no one after drinking old wine wants the new,
for he says, ‘The old is better.’”

As I thought about that I felt that God said that we gravitate towards what’s familiar.

Let’s talk about that for a minute. Jesus came to give us a new life: a new way of thinking, acting, loving. His death and resurrection is why we can have freedom from sin, fear, doubt, old and unhealthy habits and the list goes on.

But we still gravitate towards our old life. Our old way of thinking, acting, loving. We stay judgemental, negative, jealous, stuck in patterns that no longer serve us or are healthy for us.
Oh, we try to add our new life of being a Jesus-Follower to our old ways, but it doesn’t work for long. His message of freedom through surrender doesn’t fit in our old mindset and behaviors.

Take a minute and ask God to show you any areas in your life that you are holding because they are familiar and comfortable but no longer serve you or are unhealthy.

I think it’s so interesting that Jesus makes a point to call out this human behavior pattern.
The Pharisees were so resistent to the new life Jesus was teaching about and offering to them. That’s where the friction came. They perferred the old, religious way. Maybe because they would have to change how they lived and relinquish their power and authority.
The disciples had to be reminded to not keep defaulting to their old way. Even with seeing all the miracles Jesus did, they still struggled to believe. Remember when they doubted they could feed thousands, or when they were afraid in the boat, or strived for position, or wanted to act out in anger, or be judgemental: “Why are You talking to a Samaritan woman?”

There have been many times in my life where I tried to add Jesus to who I was without allowing Him to truly transform who I was - how I thought - how I acted. I could pull it off for a little while, but the old, familiar way, my default ends up taking the lead again.

And that’s the battle, right? To allow God to truly transform us? To relinquish all we are to Him. All the fear, all the doubt, all the anger, all the resentment, all the envy, all the judgy-ness, all our hopes and dreams, what we thought our life should be.

That little one-liner from Jesus packs a whallop! Like a 2×4 to the head.

I had to get comfortable with being uncomfortable. And so will you.
IF we want to be transformed and walk in all that God has for us.
It’s work allowing God to transform us and change our old ways for the new life Jesus offers us. But! oh, it’s worth it isn’t it?!

Aren’t you grateful for this promise:

“This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person.
The old life is gone; a new life has begun!”
2 Corinthians 5:17

My prayer for us is that we will get rid of the “old wine” in our lives and embrace the “new wine” that Jesus has for us.

I hope you have a great day!
All My Love ~
Jodi

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