The need for change
Matthew 9:16-17 (KJV)
" No man puts a piece of new cloth unto an old garment, for that which is put in to fill it up take from the garment, and the rent is made worse. [17] Neither do men put new wine into old bottles: else the bottles break, and the wine runs out, and the bottles perish: but they put new wine into new bottles, and both are preserved. "
If you want the new wine in your life then there has to be some changes in order to cope with it. An old man who had reached 102 years of age was asked about all the changes he had seen in his lifetime. He said that he had seen so many, and had resisted every one of them. We don't like change, do we? The older you get the harder it is to change.
We live in an ever-changing world and things are not getting any better. Change is here to stay. I went back to my old hometown to the street I lived in as a child and found that there was not one single person there anymore who was around when I was a child. The bible says that in the End Times mankind would go too and fro. Daniel 12:4 (KJV)
The bible also says that before Jesus comes back there will be a lot of shaking going on. Haggai 2:6-7 (KJV). We need to be supple in order to cope with all the shaking and the pressure associated with it all. In big storms some of the huge trees that have been around for years, fall over. They used to look so strong but on close examination you often find that they are hollow inside. Big trees are also unable to bend. You find in a hurricane that the more supple trees like palm tress are able to bend with the storm and are the ones that remain. So it is with Christians. If we are too rigid in our ideas then we will also fall in the day of great shaking. We need to adapt and change with these ever changing, shaking times. I don't mean that we should compromise the message though.
Look at pop stars like Michael Jackson and Madonna. At one stage they we on the cutting edge of modern music but even they began to lose it in time. They found it hard to change with the times and their music became out of date. It was the same message but they were using the old methods and style.
You find that there has never been a leader of any revival who was able to lead the next one, in fact so many of those leaders opposed the next revival because they didn't understand what God was doing. To them it wasn't the way in which He had done it before.
The wonderful thing about Christianity is that we are ever changing. The message hasn't changed but the vessels and method has. God cares for His church and is always pruning us for our good. He does it so that we may bring forth much fruit. We look different to what we were.
Jeremiah 48:11 tells us of how we need to be poured out from one vessel to another so that our wine doesn't smell and have dregs in it. He wants us to be a pure people. We need to throw off all those things that weigh us down and offend the Lord and let Him deal with us. This requires change and change is always stressful.
They say that one of the most stressful things a person can do is change location. I'm not sure if this is true or not but Bernice and I have shifted many times in our marriage and most of them have been too different countries as well. We have been to South Africa twice, Zimbabwe twice, New Zealand three times and the United Kingdom twice. They have all been stressful moves but we have learnt a few things on the way that have helped us in the changes.
Each move has involved a stripping off of things that aren't really necessary in our lives. Throwing off the excess baggage. If you continue to carry worry and care around with you it can cancel out your witness for Jesus. Most people want peace and joy in their lives and if we are uptight all the time in these days of shaking, we won't be a good witness. We could become irritable, snappy and distant from people because we aren't handling the stress.
Most of our uptight attitudes come from the disappointments that arise when things don't go our way. Most of the time it comes from unrealistic expectations, which always produce frustration. It's expecting things to be a certain way and when they aren't, we lose it.
Don't expect people to be friendly and when they are it's a bonus. Don't expect to have a trouble free day, when it's a hassle thank God for the chance to grow. Don't expect the traffic to be smooth sailing all the time and you won't become so frustrated. It's not going to get any better.
If we want God's new wine in our lives then we need to change. Change is never easy but it's all part of God's plan for us. It can be stressful, but we mustn't let it get to us but keep our eyes on Jesus. He wants us to cast our cares upon Him because He cares for us.