New Life

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Ruth 2:11 What Will You Leave Behind?

Boaz replied, “I’ve been told all about what you have done for your mother-in-law since the death of your husband–how you left your father and mother and your homeland and came to live with a people you did not know.” Ruth 2:11

Stepping out into the unknown is very difficult for many people. It not only requires a step of faith, but also a step away from the familiar and safe and known place.

Sometimes it will require leaving family and friends behind to go to the new place or to a new level. Doing this can be painful and difficult.

Boaz had heard of how Ruth had left her family and land to follow Naomi into a new land after her husband had died.

Every person has various points in their life in which they have to take a step into something unknown or new to them. It begins as a child moving up into new class levels in school and continues through adulthood with new jobs or locations to live.

Any time a person becomes a new believer, he must take a step into something new, something unknown. There is a change of the way of thinking and doing things. In this process one must be willing to leave behind things and people.

The new believer has a new life and is a new creation in Christ Jesus with a new family and a new way of living. It is a new culture that is drastically different from the past. The past is behind, and all things are new.

Taking a step like this requires complete faith in God and His boldness to step away from the past. It is trusting that God knows what is best and has something better in store.

As a believer there are some things that you have had to leave behind. There may be more things or people that God wants you to leave behind because they only distract you from Him and pull you down.

Keep your eyes focused on God and follow Him all the way. Do not allow people or things in your life to pull you away from God and what He has for you.

What God has in store for you is much greater than anything or anyone you must leave behind. Are you holding on to your past? Or are you leaving all behind and moving forward in Jesus?

Today I pray that you will know Jesus as your Lord and Savior; that you will know what God wants you to leave behind; that God will give you strength to leave behind what will harm or distract you; and that you will follow God with all of your heart and life.

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Joshua 5:9 Cutting Off The Past

Then the Lord said to Joshua, “Today I have rolled away the reproach of Egypt from you.” So the place has been called Gilgal to this day. Joshua 5:9

Every person has a past filled with things that can be positive or negative. It is often the negative things in one’s past that has the biggest impact on one’s life.

Abuse, bad relationships, sinful behaviors and actions all create problems that need to be removed. While some of these things are desired to be removed, the sinful behaviors are often ignored as acceptable or strongly desired.

After getting all the Israelites circumcised, God told Joshua that He had removed the reproach of Egypt from them.

Circumcision is a process of removing something that is unwanted or unneeded. The older the person is the more painful the process will be.

Prior to being a believer, every person lives in the world and is filled with sin and sinful desires. He was guided by the principles and practices of the world, which brings about judgement and death. It is a disgrace to hold on to, but one is blinded from that truth.

Upon believing in Jesus, one’s life has been circumcised from the past. All the past sins and sinful desires are to be cut off and thrown out.

In the same way that circumcision is painful for the older person, so the cutting out of the past sinful habits can be painful but comes with great benefits. The sinful heart desires the sin of the world that only brings about death in the end.

Cutting off sin and the desire for sin brings about true life that will last for eternity. There will no longer be judgement and reproach upon the believer, but forgiveness, acceptance and holiness that God intended for all mankind.

You most likely have things in your past that are painful and sinful. As a believer you must allow God to cut those things off from your life and be filled with the new life that God has in store for you. This process may be painful at times, but in the end, it brings a greater joy and life than the world can ever offer.

Allow yourself to be filled with God and the things of God, not the sinful things of this dead world. Live life as God has originally intended for you to live.

Today I pray that you will know Jesus as your Lord and Savior; that you will allow God to circumcise sin out of your life; that you will live your life to honor and glorify God; that you will allow God to cut off your past hurts and sins; and that you will live holy unto God.

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Deuteronomy 6:12 Do Not Forget God

be careful that you do not forget the Lord, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. Deuteronomy 6:12

Getting from the bottom to the top of an organization or business is not something that can be done completely alone. It takes a group of people to work together to lift one person up. Without the outside support, one cannot usually get very far on his own.

Many people who do make it to the top will often forget those who helped get them there. They feel that they did it themselves with no real help.

Moses told the people that once they get into the promised land that they should not forget the Lord who brought them out of Egypt.

Prior to becoming a believer every person is in a virtual Egypt, land of slavery. Although they may not physically have been slaves, they were slaves to sin, the world and death. Each person’s story or situation is a little different, but all fall under the slavery of sin and death.

Upon becoming a believer, God rescues them out of that slavery of sin and death to live a full and abundant life unto God. This new life is something that no one can purchase or build for themselves, it is a gift of God given to them.

As things change and one begins to see God’s great favor, many people begin to forget God thinking that they did it on their own. Some begin to get focused on their ministry and put God on the side. Others get focused on life and the busyness of life forgetting God who gave it to them, going back into slavery.

Every day and every moment the believer should stay focused on God and what He has done and is doing. He should never forget God or put Him on the side.

God has brought you out of your Egypt, land of slavery to sin and death. He has given you purpose and life that you did not work for or earn on your own, it is His gift to you.

Do not allow those blessings to get to your head and cause you to forget God and ignore Him. Stay in His word. Talk to God daily in prayer. Keep your life totally focused on God and what He has done and is doing in your life.

Today I pray that you will know Jesus as your Lord and Savior; that you will remember what God has brought you out of; that you will never forget what God has done for you; that God will strengthen you to not return to the slavery of sin; and that you will see God’s hand of provision and blessing in your life.

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Numbers 33:55 Drive Them Out

But if you do not drive out the inhabitants of the land, those you allow to remain will become barbs in your eyes and thorns in your sides. They will give you trouble in the land where you will live. Numbers 33:55

When a person begins to plant a garden in a new location, he must first remove all of the weeds that are currently in its place. If the weeds are not removed before the planting, the weeds will grow up and overtake the plants, causing a lot of problems and limited growth. The weeds will fight for control.

God told the Israelites that when they go into the promised land, they must drive out the inhabitants of the land, but if they do not, then those left will cause problems for them.

Although most people will not be physically moving when they become believers, every one of them will be moving in a spiritual sense. Their move is one from a sinful state of living, into one of living for God in holiness and righteousness.

The life of one not serving God is filled with sin–sinful thoughts, actions, beliefs and friends. At the moment of becoming a believer, one must be willing to get rid of the old ways, otherwise like the inhabitants of the land for the Israelites, those ways will become thorns and barbs in the life of the believer.

Old sinful things will draw a person back away from God. They will pull a person into sinful ways, causing a backsliding.

Only with complete removal will a person be able to move forward with God without a thorn in the side holding him back. Holding onto God and His word and being filled and led by the Holy Spirit will give the believer strength to overcome the enemy and sin in his life.

As a believer, you are on a journey in a new land. There are inhabitants in your life that you must be willing to drive out.

These inhabitants are the old sinful ways or habits, sinful connections, sinful beliefs and anything else that pulls you away from God. Allow God, with His Holy Spirit, to give you strength to drive out the past and dead to give you a new life in the new land you are now living in.

Anything that you do not drive out will become a thorn in your side and cause many problems in following God.

Today I pray that you will know Jesus as your Lord and Savior; that God will reveal anything in your life that is holding you back from serving Him with your whole life; that God will give you strength to cast out old sinful ways; and that you will live the abundant life Jesus has brought you in to.

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Exodus 2:10 Getting Pulled Out

When the child grew older, she took him to Pharaoh’s daughter and he became her son. She named him Moses, saying, “I drew him out of the water.” Exodus 2:10

Various organizations exist for the purpose to help pull people out of dangerous situations. Each one has a different focus for rescue. Some are pulled out of destructive households, others from drugs, others from physical abuse, and some from poverty. Emergency personnel pull people from various accidents of all sorts.

When a person is pulled out of a dangerous situation or place, he is allowed to have a new life.

At a time when Pharaoh was killing all Israelite boys, a mother put a baby boy in a basket on the river. Pharaoh’s daughter pulled him out and raised him, calling him, “Moses”, since she pulled him from the water.

The life being given to people who are pulled out of dangerous situations by organizations and emergency personnel is just a temporary life. It is a new life here on this earth, but at some point each one will physically die.

While many people are rescued physically this way, there is a more dangerous situation that every person is in and only some are rescued out of it. Every person is floating in a river of sin and is heading for destruction for eternity.

The world may ignore the dangerous situation, but God sees and is reaching down to pull people out of it. Jesus reaches into the hearts of people and removes their sin. There is now no danger of drowning in the river of sin.

This new believer is then given the new name of Christian and a new life, because he is now a follower of Christ, pulled out of a life of sin and death.

When you were born, you were placed in a basket of flesh upon this earth in a river of sin. The sin you committed against God gave you a death sentence, unless someone rescued you.

Jesus is reaching down to pull you out of that river and give you life. You must choose to accept His help. He will not pull you out unless you want Him to do so.

If you have chosen to believe in Jesus as your Lord and Savior, you have been pulled out of that river of sin and given a new name and a new life for eternity.

Do you have a new name and a new life?

Today I pray that you will know Jesus as your Lord and Savior; that you will have a new name given by God; that you will allow God to pull you out of a life of sin and death; and that you will know the new life God has for you.