“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!” 2 Corinthians 5:17
“Conversion is a turning onto the right road. The next thing to do is to walk on it.” Charles H. Spurgeon
- Call your prayer partner for your 10-minute prayer call. If you have difficulty connecting with your prayer partner, ask God for wisdom about what to do. If you feel that she is no longer interested in praying together, call her and ask about it. She may have a good reason for being unable to pray. Always assume the best! If she says she can’t be your prayer partner right now, pray and ask God to bring you someone else. Be on the lookout for this new prayer partner. God will bring her to you!
- It’s time to meet with your Jesus! He is the One who calls you daughter and longs to hold you close. Rejoice today, knowing that because you are a Christ-Follower, you can be confident that God is with you and helping you be the best Christian woman, wife, and mother you were created to be! You are a beautiful work in progress in the hands of a faithful and loving God.
- Read 2 Corinthians 5:17. Write this powerful passage in your journal or the journal pages of this book. If you have time, read the whole chapter.
Dearest Mama, In Christ, You are NEW!
Before I was a Christian, I was as lost as they come. I had a difficult childhood, which led me to live a wild life with many regrets. Thankfully, my friend and coworker, Melissa, led me to Christ and told me early on that the Bible was true and that I could believe every word. So I read it, memorized it, prayed it, and little by little, I began to change.
I remember reading and memorizing 2 Corinthians 5:17 and feeling amazed that I was really new: “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!” This Scripture encouraged me to live out the Christian life in confidence, knowing that it didn’t matter what I did before coming to Jesus. I now had a new life, filled with change and possibility, and I didn’t need to feel condemned about my old life anymore.
I still had moments in which the past would haunt me, even though I knew in my heart that I was forgiven and redeemed. That old flesh and the devil still messed with me from time to time and told me that I was not good enough. However, one day at a time, the promise of that verse began to take root. I began to change.
And here I am, 35 years later, a completely different person who encourages others to know and follow Jesus. My life truly is a miracle. Only the power of Jesus could have taken a drug-taking, cigarette-smoking, alcohol-drinking, and completely lost woman and changed me, little by little, to become the Christian woman, wife, and mother I am today. To God be the glory!!
Isn’t that what God does best? He takes a life in shambles and makes it beautiful, causing us to want to bring others to know the same saving power of Jesus.
I love how Charles Spurgeon, the prince of preachers, puts it:
“I mean this—if any man is in Christ, it is not merely his mental eye that is a new creation, but he, himself, is a new creation! He has a new heart according to the promise, ‘A new heart, also, will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you.’ He has new ears, hearing what he refused to hear before. He has a new tongue and can pray with it as he never prayed before! He has new feet, and these delight to run in the ways of God’s Commandments.”
How about you, dear Mama, do you believe that you are new? Have you received victory in your life and seen changes, even if it’s only a little at a time? Or do you still find yourself struggling with that old flesh and feel defeated in your walk with God?
I know many new Christ-followers who battle with falling back into their old habits and struggle to see themselves as new. They come to Christ and begin to change and grow, but then something happens, and a darkness comes over them, and they slip into a defeated state. Often, due to this, they withdraw from their Christian church and community and go back to their old, faith-less habits.
Then, to make matters worse, the devil comes and tells them that they will never change. He lies to them and says it’s no use and that they may as well stay where they are because God could never change them, much less love them the way they are. This false belief delivered via their thoughts comes straight from the devil and causes many people I have known to be stunted in their Christian walk. They feel far away from God and begin to wonder if there really is a God or if He even cares about them at all. They begin to lose hope and fall away.
You see, I think Satan hates it when we completely understand and believe what happened when we became a Christian: Jesus saved us from any and all sins that we committed, and we became a new creation. At conversion, we were given a new nature, complete with the seeds for a life lived well in the power of the Holy Spirit. These precious seeds are “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control” (Galatians 5:22-23). When properly cared for by spending time reading and meditating on the soul-filling Word of God, prayer, and closeness to Jesus, these seeds will grow into fruit which, in turn, will produce the “life which is truly life” and help us to live and love well!
Stay close to your Jesus, dear one, and believe the Word of God. Watch yourself change before your very eyes and be amazed at what faith can do. I am praying for you! I am praying for you to know the wide and long and high and deep love of Christ (Ephesians 3:18) and for the seeds of the fruit of the Spirit to grow and change you, allowing you to become more like Jesus each passing day.
Blessings and Love,
Deb Weakly and the Help Club for Moms Team
Questions to Ponder
- Do you believe you are a new creation in Christ? Do you live your life like you are a changed person? If not, why don’t you? What’s holding you back?
- If you did believe that you are new, how would your life be different? What kind of thoughts would you allow yourself to think? How would you live your life? What would you do differently?
Faith-Filled Ideas
Write out Galatians 5:22-23 on an index card and put it at your kitchen sink and/or write it on your bathroom mirror in dry-erase marker. Every time you see the verse, speak it out loud and then ask Jesus to help those seeds of your new life grow and make you more like Him.
This devotional comes from our book “The Wise Woman Knows.” You can find it HERE!
I remember going into my daughter's room night after night and kneeling beside her bed and crying my heart out to God because I didn’t know how to be a Christian mom; I felt like I had no idea what I was doing. You know what? God is so faithful! He answered me and simply said, “Spend time with me, Deb.” And so I did. I began arising 15-30 minutes earlier each day so I could read my Bible and pray, and plan out my day with my family.
If there was one thing I would love to share with you is that God is personal and loves you as you are. You don’t have to be perfect to be loved by our amazing God! Come as you are! His loving presence can be practically known and experienced. He is not a God who is far away, He is near and easily found. He longs for you to come to Him!
Randy and I have been married for 33 years and we have two grown children, Christie, and Jack, and one answer to prayer son-in-law named Alex. And now I get to be a Gigi to my sweet little grandbabies, Aspen and Skylar, and Piper. Yay!
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- Hearing God Episode Four: Hearing God For Your Kids - April 14, 2024
One Comment on “Dearest Mama, In Christ, You are NEW!”
Hallelujah, a New Creation because of Jesus…I love what you wrote! “Only the power of Jesus could have taken a drug-taking, cigarette-smoking, alcohol-drinking, and completely lost woman and changed me, little by little, to become the Christian woman, wife, and mother I am today. To God be the glory!!” Thanks for encouraging me this morning Deb.