Two of my nieces were over the other day and decided it was the perfect time to perform a talent show while bouncing on my bed. The talent they chose to display wasn’t what you’d expect. Instead, they decided to put on an animal show.
One of them acted as the trainer while the other clawed, roared, and squealed, sometimes all at once, pretending to be the scary beast. And let me tell you, if you’ve never seen a seven-year-old pretend to be a velociraptor, you don’t know fear.
I don’t know if we ever grow out of pretending, do we?
If you’re like most, you spend a lot of your time pretending to be something you’re not. People pretend they are successful, important, and influential all the time.
We are constantly trying to fool people into believing that we’ve made ourselves into something significant. The problem with this is not only in the pretending; it’s in the self-making.
I want you to know today that you can stop pretending. And you can stop trying to make yourself into something important.
God wants to make you into something you are not. And guess what? It’s way better than the person you’ve been pretending to be.
Here’s how God makes you into something you are not.
He gives you a new heart.
Hear this promise from God, “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.” (Ezekiel 36:26)
This is the first step in becoming what God wants you to be. Only he has the power to change your heart.
He makes you into a new person.
2 Corinthians 5:17 tells us that “anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun!”
You can read all the self-improvement books you want. But only Jesus can change who you are for eternity.
He changes your tune.
Psalm 40:3 says, “He has given me a new song to sing, a hymn of praise to our God.
Many will see what he has done and be amazed. They will put their trust in the Lord.”
If you let God change your tune, he will change your life. It goes hand in hand with getting a new heart. Out of the abundance of our heart, our mouth speaks.
He gives you a new life.
Romans 6:4 says, “We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.”
When it says “new life,” it’s not referring to a location. It’s referring to your potential when you let God make you into something you are not; you begin a new life filled with unlimited possibilities.
