Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!
2 Corinthians 5:17 (NIV)
Does your life feel like a mess sometimes?
Maybe you feel like nothing has changed since you decided to follow Jesus because you still have all the same bad habits and problems. This may seem true, but you need to realize that you were created “anew” (Ephesians 2:10, NLT). You still may have beliefs to change and habits to overcome—we all do—but as a spiritual being, you are not at all who you were before you gave your life to Jesus.
The truth is that the more you learn about this new identity you have as a result of giving your life to Christ, the more you access God’s power to change.
Some Christians seem to expect people to clean up their acts before they start coming to church, but what they expect is really impossible. Without a revelation of their new identity and power source, people have no power to do right. In fact, trying to be good on the strength of their own willpower
only strengthens the bad habits and tendencies they fight in life, which brings condemnation, shame and judgment.
People need to be free to come as they are to church, bad habits and all. As they begin to realize their new identity in Christ, they will begin to change their behaviour.
You may have habits to break and it’s great to work on those. But don’t stay focused on the fact that you are not where you need to be. Get up every morning and say, “I am a child in God’s family, I have His nature in me, and I am empowered through Him to overcome!”