…May is a month of rebirth, inspiration and excitement; a time of profound growth, renewal and divine grace.

“What a busy world we live in.

Everyone is full of cares.

Worries, stress and strain of living.

Nothing done, yet time is scarce.”

As we see more signs of Spring and more signs that we are moving into Summer, we have the opportunity to pause …

… to pause and reflect …

… to pause and renew …

But, for this to have any positive effect on our lives we must truly understand what that means.

Renewal is the beautiful, often slow, sometimes painful, work of God stripping away our ways of being that we think feel safe but which, ultimately, are not our truest selves. It is God stripping those away, layer by layer, to reveal the glory He placed inside us.

By glory I don’t mean fame, influence, ego, or self importance; but a “crucified” kind of glory. One which comes through surrender.

Resurrection cannot be experienced without death. We need the cross!

If we allow God into our hearts we cannot limit Him to just the part we want Him to see. We must surrender to Him our whole selves, good and bad, happy and sad, our ingrained patterns and our hidden fears. Then we have to allow Him to transform us.

It’s not about becoming better but about becoming “God’s original masterpiece”; becoming who God originally created us to be.

Freedom and renewal begins in admitting we are deeply flawed and desperately in need of a Saviour. It begins in surrender.

Ephesians 4:22-24 “To put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.”

So, how can we achieve this? 

Slowly and repeatedly. Renewal is a slow plodding process of pain, death and reconfiguration, well before any energy and encouragement bursts onto the scene. To be made new or to be remade new means something needs to change and change is not easy. It needs to happen everyday. It happens by the Grace of God but we have a significant part to play. We must, daily, reflect, pray and act. We must also open ourselves to humility. We must emulate Jesus – what would Jesus do? We must trust in God and in His loving ways. We must stop resisting and pass our burdens to God, allowing Him to provide.

True renewal requires releasing old ways, habits or pains. It is an act of “composting” old habits and letting them die in order to nurture new growth.

Embrace change! It is, after all, a daily requirement of being a Christian; and it’s coming whether you like it or not!