New Year New You-

It looks different than they are telling you …

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I just downloaded a yoga chair app for seniors (ie: code name for people who won’t go to the gym because they’d have to change clothes then drive the car—way too many steps and the workout hasn’t even started yet). My plan is to yoga from my desk chair at home, with my coffee and granola bars within arm’s reach because I might need the boost to accomplish those seated leg lifts.

New Year’s Resolution

As is after every Christmas and two weeks of eating everything I shouldn’t (and loving it), the fat guilt has arrived and I’m making New Year’s resolutions.

What about you?

Is 2024 calling for change in your physique? Thousands of new year – new me type people rush to join gyms in the wake of the holiday and in the dawning of a new year. But 50% of these better-physique motivated peeps lose the drive and quit by month three. Month three, ya’ll – despite making gym memberships an $82 billion dollar business annually. Summary? One-half of that $82 billion is not used for three-quarters of the year. Crazy.

And Then There Are the Spiritual Revolutions

Throughout my Facebook feeds, I’ve noticed Christian marketers push for their products from the new year; new spiritual you angle. Christian leaders/influencers also tout New Year’s resolutions with calls to commit to new plans for spiritual growth. There are books, study guides, reading plans, and endless options that promise you’ll achieve Christian improvement in the spiritual gym of Christian commercialism.

And so, Christians across nations begin the divine work out, committing to do better, be better, and work their way through a year of improvement for the Lord.

Work is a Biblical Cuss Word

The problem with this approach to spiritual growth is the biblical cussword “work.” In the Bible, “work,” when it comes to spiritual achievements, is a dirty word.

Check out why:

For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast. – Ephesians 2:8-9

Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Hebrews 12:1-2.

He Works; We Reap

Spiritual workouts done through your own strength render a big fat zero. Well, maybe not zero. Maybe the hard work renders negative results like the opportunity to boast, pump your chest with pride, or maybe end your days frustrated that you’re just not getting anywhere—still feeling like the same old you dealing with the same old sins.

According to the Word, Jesus’ sacrifice is what makes you worthy—not your own efforts at worthiness. And it is Jesus’ work that continues to perfect you, not your flesh attempts at being the perfect Christian. We are told (Scripture above) to lay aside the sin that entangles or trips us up and the command is a passive instruction.

Consider the choice of words used here: Lay aside means to easily discard, to simply let go. The term lay aside doesn’t evoke hard-work imagery. It’s more like sticking something in a drawer, or taking a burden off the shoulder and setting it on the ground.

Sometimes looking at what isn’t said in Scripture is as revealing as what is said. The words the author of Hebrews chose with divine inspiration here were not rip off a part of your being till you bleed or work your butt off getting rid of an imperfection.

When we consider the command to lay aside comes right before the revelation that it is Christ who perfects us, we see that our spiritual growth is in Christ’s hands, not our own. This is what our Savior does—it is who He is. He isn’t sitting on the throne waiting for you to get life right. He’s joyfully working in your life to get you to the spiritual place He created you for. And, He does it all while sitting at the right hand of the Father. He is, let’s not forget, omnipotent and omnipresent. He can do all things–rule the world and work on you simultaneously.

Here’s the Revelation

Here’s the thing my warrior friends: the sin you are to lay aside should be an easier task than we humans tend to make it. Why? Because when Christ died and was buried, you and your sin died and were buried with Him at the same point in time. This means regardless of generational eras or limits in earthly time, your sin was buried when your salvation was birthed.

Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. – Roman 6:4.

He made Him who knew no sin to be sin in our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. – 2 Corinthian 5:21

From God’s perspective, if you are a Believer, then you are new now and were new last year before the rush to 2024’s resolutions. You are already beyond the flesh and walking through a new holy life. You are–your identity is–the righteousness of God.

Some of us, me included, haven’t fully awakened to this truth yet, however.

We died with Christ.

We rose with Christ.

When we lose motivation at month 3, He does not. His motivation for you is eternal.

We are who we were created to be and compelled to walk in this profound and miraculous truth today.

Consider 2 Corinthians 5:17- Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.

You are new. End of work. Embrace the new you that has come. It’s a miracle for you to take hold of now.

Transformation is Continuous

As Christ perfects your faith, the building up in righteousness is underway. In 2 Corinthian 3:18, this concept is explained:

But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit.

How exciting is it that we don’t wonder around this earth looking for illusive glory, but we walk in confidence that we are the glory of God at this moment. Even when the world tells us we aren’t; even when it doesn’t feel like we are. Look at Romans 8:9 (a):

However, you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you.

Seeing Beyond Human Limits

To the human eye, you may look like the same person you were before Christ changed everything. But in the spiritual realm, you are the daughter or son of the highest king in the world. You now have His holy DNA. You are an heir to His inheritance. Romans 8:16-17 testifies:

The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him so that we may also be glorified with Him.

But one day the world will see the work of Christ in us.

For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us. For the anxious longing of the creation waits eagerly for the revealing of the sons of God. – Romans 8:18-19.

In the spiritual world, you have arrived and your training in further righteousness is underway. In the physical world, you may look like you need to go to the gym. But you don’t. What you were meant to be has already happened.

What you were meant to be just hasn’t been fully revealed yet.

So, your part in this wonderful truth is not only passive, although the laying aside of sin, as we’ve discussed, should be as easy as unfurling our tight, fleshy fingers and dropping that sin back into the blackhole it came from. But your royal position at this unique point in life is to allow continued righteous growth—not create it. Allow is way different from create. Ponder that for the new year.

Growth Happens Like This

Listen to the spirit within you. Answer those holy nudges with confidence. Take courageous steps when the Holy Spirit prompts. Let God’s glory shine to your neighbors and the nations, waiting for the revelation of your real DNA—God’s beloved child–that will one day come.

Defy what the world says about you and shine, baby, shine. This is what brings the nations to the throne of God.

So go ahead and buy those Christian materials that promise to make you a better version of the Christian you this year. Just know that it’s not in the doing that you grow, but in the understanding, the knowing of God, and the accepting of Christ’s work in you that you grow. If you’re not taking a legalistic approach to doing these exercises, then you may discover you have stronger teeth for truly chewing spiritual meat. Good for you!

Final Thoughts and Overcoming

The sin you may be trying to overcome through your own spiritual muscles is not hanging out and pestering you to deter your salvation. Your salvation was settled at the cross. Please remember this. The enemy dangles an old and buried sin in your face to make God look bad.  Satan and evil dominions want the myriad of spiritual beings alive and watching today to question God’s wisdom in choosing you. The Apostle Paul explains this in his letter to the Ephesians:

To me, the very least of all saints, this grace was given, to preach to the Gentiles the unfathomable riches of Christ, and to enlighten all people as to what the plan of the mystery is which for ages has been hidden in God, who created all things; so that the multifaceted wisdom of God might now be made known through the church to the rulers and the authorities in the heavenly places.

And there you have it. Our growth and our nation-building commission (Matthew 28:19), are for this purpose–the manifold wisdom of God. No wonder the enemies of all Christ is and does work so hard at making you feel unworthy. Don’t buy it. You are already royalty.

And there’s nothing that can change your royal position–you were raised to new life when Christ raised from the tomb. And that truth is just so super cool.

Walk in it, Warrior. Live it every day.

If I perish, I perish,

Laurie

Check out my She Heard podcast on Apple Podcast at: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/she-heard/id1665395913