Show others that they can be made new!

Be Still . . .
Devotionals for Daily Living

“No one sews a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment, for the patch will pull away from the garment, making the tear worse. Neither do men pour new wine into old wineskins. If they do, the skins will burst, the wine will run out and the wineskins will be ruined. No, they pour new wine into new wineskins, and both are preserved.”
(Matthew 9:16-17 (NIV))

Have you become so set in your ways that God cannot do something new in your life? Is your heart so old that it cannot handle anything new?

If you associate physical age with “oldness,” then let me explain something. I have seen very old men and women who have a “new” heart – one that is open to the love, grace and mercy that God has blessed them with and I have seen people who are physically young who have such an “old” heart. It is closed to anything and everything that has to do with God. Fortunately, God has a way of softening hard hearts. He can reverse the aging process that we have applied to ourselves. Just like the old wineskins that would burst if new wine were poured into them, our old hearts must undergo a change before we can fully accept the love, grace and mercy that God so freely gives.

We are those wineskins!

If God were to pour out new wine of His Spirit upon your heart, would it be able to hold it? Would it be so brittle and break because of the new shape that God desires for it to take, or would it bend and accept the changes from within? Just like the new wine changes the wineskin from within, God changes our heart from within. He pours out His Spirit and allows it to flow into the very recesses of our heart. It works slowly and before you know it, just like with the wine, God has soon changed the vessel that He has used to contain His Spirit.

There is no wrong time to open yourself up to the newness that God wants to bring Allow God to use you to show others that He can bring a newness and a refreshing even when the world is saying that there is no hope.

Show others that they can be made new!

Copyright 1998 – 2019 Dennis J. Smock
Daily Living Ministries, Inc.
http://www.dailylivingministries.org
Subscribe to daily email delivery
Visit us on facebook

What will you receive in the new year?

Be Still . . .
Devotionals for Daily Living ^©

“No one sews a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment, for the patch will pull away from the garment, making the tear worse. Neither do men pour new wine into old wineskins. If they do, the skins will burst, the wine will run out and the wineskins will be ruined. No, they pour new wine into new wineskins, and both are preserved.”
(Matthew 9:16-17 (NIV))

Do you ever feel like the old wineskin, all cracked and brittle, unable to adapt and bend?

Life throws us things that we would rather not have happen. If we let them, these things can harden our hearts and turn us into the very thing that we long not to be. We become the angry man or woman that we all have known in our lives. We become the person that no one desires to be around. We become all bitter and brittle in our lives and in our dealings with others.

Our “wine” has turned to vinegar and we did not even realize it !

Just what is that “wine?” It is a life lived in Jesus. It is the blooming of the grace that He has given us. It is the maturation of the fruit of the spirit, and if we are not careful, our “wine” will become tainted and bitter.

Every wine skin grows old. Every wine skin will loose it’s ability to flex and grow. And just as a wine skin must be replaced, we can replace our hearts. We can renew our hearts. God has given us grace. If we grow bitter, we can repent and receive a new wine skin. A wine skin that will be able to hold all of God’s blessings and grace that He can bestow.

God desires to fill each of us with new “wine.” Are you ready to receive it?

Copyright 1998 – 2012 Dennis J. Smock
Daily Living Ministries, Inc.
http://www.dailylivingministries.org
Subscribe to daily email delivery