Renewal!

Was walking home from work (yes, I'm that fortunate haha... XD thank God!) just now, and was reflecting on today's experiences. One of the experiences that I had today was that of reformatting a computer to ensure a stable installation of some complex software.

Then the word "old wineskins" came to mind. And some accompanying memories too. Think God is telling me that I need to let Him renew my mind, to be "made new in the attitude of my mind."

And I remember that I have certain mindsets that hold me back from being effective for God. From time to time I breakthrough, but slowly after that I slide back into my old ways. Like how a pristine computer, when you first get it, is so fast and so new. But as it accumulates more junk and software and spyware, etc... it becomes extremely slow and sometimes, even useless.

Thus! There comes the time when you simply must stop everything you're doing and strip the computer back to basics. Back to its original factory-fresh state. Unhindered, uncorrupted.

Reminds how back two years ago, God really helped me breakthrough in relationships. And He really saved me from a major lie in my mind that I'd been listening to - and how it was ruining my life. It was so wonderful - my CL and some of the brothers and sisters testified how different my spirit was.

And one of the sweetest and most amazing things was that He took away this continual sense of loneliness that'd been plaguing me for many years. He took it away so completely that I never even knew it was gone - that's the way Jesus can really satisfy your heart and mind so completely and fully that "the former things shall not be remembered, nor will they come to mind." (Isaiah 65:17b) And it's not merely metaphorical - God really was speaking literally when He said those wonderful words!

But as time passed by after that major breakthrough, I let my insecurities and the same old lies start creeping back in. And to be honest, the Enemy reminded me again and again of my old past, and I started getting very discouraged. (Forgive me, Pa, for allowing the devil to remind me again of my past... I should be reminding him of what You say about his future!)

But again, God is so faithful. He sent me people to remind me of the truth that has set me free. So I got up again. And so on and so forth. But right now, I see some things from the past being repeated again, and the old cold loneliness starting to creep in again. But thank God for His grace, reminding me to guard my heart here - because it is for freedom that Christ has set me free. So stand firm then and do not let myself be burdened again by a yoke of slavery!

So likewise, after reinstalling Windows, I also must reapply again the service packs - from service pack 1 to service pack 2 (and eventually to service pack 3). And reapply all the relevant updates.

Same goes for my walk with God. Even after being renewed, I need to sharpen again and refresh and renew my knowledge of God, renew my first love for Him, renew the truths and upgrade my spiritual "service packs" that help protect me from Satan's "viruses and spyware" that continually assault my mind. To double-check the "firewall" of God's Word, to make sure I haven't dropped my guard and accidentally allowed any "security breaches" that allow Satan's devastating deceptions to come in and destroy my mind.

Galatians 5:1
It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.

Amen!