You want a warranty with that toaster? A question we all get when buying something of value. Well, maybe not toasters but cars, electronics, houses. Why, this question? Cause we all have received a gift or bought something for ourselves only to find that it doesn’t work or it falls apart. Life happens and sometimes the rain pours and we find out that the new house we had built, has a leaky roof. Usually there’s a ninety day warranty for the products we buy at the stores. So that if anything happens to the product, we can return it and exchange it for a new one. After ninety days though, sorry out of luck, you’re either gonna have to fix it yourself or buy a new one. This has happened to me quite a bit. It can be very frustrating when a product I expected to work, breaks and doesn’t function properly and on top of that, the warranty expires. Yes, I’ve been there and it’s no fun. But for all those times something broke and I had a warranty, it definitely put me at ease knowing all I had to do was exchange the old one and receive the new. So, I was thinking about this and how this relates to our lives and our relationship with God. Hey, I’m a Christian blogger that’s what I do. I’ve been thinking about my life and how many times it seems like I’m a broken piece of equipment. I fail more than I succeed, my heart gets easily broken into pieces, and there are more times I don’t operate like the owner’s manual says I’m supposed to. I feel like I’m a vacuum cleaner and instead of sucking up the dirt, I’m spewing out dirt instead. I end up making a mess of things and instead of being useful and serving the true purpose for my life, I end up hurting others and myself, again and again. I fall apart and then I try and fix my own problems by reading the owner’s manual about the parts that need fixing but its all to no avail. I lose hope and then I compare myself to others and how they are living and they seem to be doing great. They don’t seem to struggle with certain sins, they don’t seem to have any issues, life is great for them, so what’s up with me? Where did I go wrong? And then God reminded me of a time years ago when I asked the Lord, I cried out to Him with all my heart, that He would help change me. “God change me!”, I cried out. Then He spoke these words and it was just a thought in my mind. It was this, “My Son, stop asking me to change you, and start thanking me that I’ve exchanged you!”. Wow, I never thought of that before. When I initially put my trust in Christ, I was exchanged. I became a new creation. Scripture says, “if anyone is in Christ, He is a new creation. The old is gone, the new has come”. The old man has died, I’ve been given a new life, a new mind, a new heart, a new beginning and it’s only found when I exchanged myself for His grace. That truth has been a blessing for me for years but I’ve been finding myself lately struggling again and that’s when God reminded me today, to renew my mind again with this truth. The Bible says “do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world but daily renew your mind”. That means exchanging the lies of the enemy for the truth of who we are in Him. And that means we do it daily. Sometimes I forget to do that. Thank you God for your grace and your daily reminder of this promise. This life can be hard and with the challenges and temptations we face on a daily basis, we can find ourselves broken once again, with a leaky roof. Sometimes we can struggle just to function properly and we can easily give up. But that’s exactly what we need to do. Just Give up! Give up trying, give up fixing it, and just give it up to the one who will take our brokenness, our struggles, our weaknesses, our lives and exchange it for His life, through His endless grace. So how about you? Frustrated your life is not working out, struggling with the same old sins? Breathe in and breathe out, and take those burdens down to customer service. Present your receipt bought with His blood, and exchange those lies for His truth that says you are already brand new. Remember with Him, the warranty never expires.
2 Corinthians 5:17
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!
Romans 12:2
Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.