Hello creative friend!
This is week twelve of twenty in my Freedom Friday posts on Identity in Christ. These blog posts are based on my I Am Journal and I hope you are joining me on this journey whether you own the journal or not.
Our truth topic today is: I am a new creation!
As I think of being a new creation in Christ, I’m often reminded of the way that a caterpillar is transformed into a butterfly. As I was researching this phenomena, I was surprised by some of the facts that I had not been aware of. For one, I think that I pictured a caterpillar keeping his body and growing wings but that is not the case at all. Did you know that the butterfly is a complete new creation? For a caterpillar to turn into a butterfly, his old body must die and a new body must form. During this process, enzymes are released to dissolve a large part of what was the caterpillar, it’s basically digesting itself and disintegrating. At this point, what you see looks like a pink gooey mess the as caterpillar is literally transforming into a new creature. This process is called metamorphosis which means the process of transformation from an immature form to an adult form.
Once the butterfly is ready to come out of it’s cocoon, it must go through a struggling phase to strengthen it’s wings. This phase is necessary and without it, the butterfly’s wings will not be properly formed and he won’t be able to fly. Our struggles as believers are very much the same. They help up become stronger and make us ready to fly. We don’t develop a whole lot when our life is easy, nor do we cling to Jesus as much. Like the butterfly, we too must struggle and work to develop our wings and transform. We can’t expect to sit around doing nothing to grow while God snaps His fingers and transforms us while we continue to be lazy. So how do we become transformed? Romans 12:2 says to be transformed by the renewing of your mind. We need to change our thinking in order to change our life. We can choose to keep our toxic thinking and stay stuck there or we can choose to partner with God and cooperate in changing our thinking to how He thinks. Change is a necessary part of growing and transforming. Change can be so scary sometimes. We fight it and act like we would rather be stuck in misery forever rather then let go of what we think is comfortable. So many times in my life, I have fought God on some necessary changes because I didn’t want to let go of my self-protecting coping mechanisms. Little did I know how good for me the changes would be. I needed not fear because I can trust that God only has the very best for me and sees the whole picture.
In order to have room for the new, we must get rid of the old. We can’t hold onto both. We can work with God or we can fight against His perfect ways. One thing is for sure, fighting against God will leave you weak and exhausted! Tweet That!
Are you a prisoner to your thoughts? Do you live in the prison of your mind? To have a transformed mind you need to let go of all toxic thinking. How we think affects everything in our life. Our thoughts have the power to bring life but can also bring us to destruction and even death.
The simplest way to look at it is whether you are believing God’s truth or the enemy’s lies. If you are filled with fear, insecurities, self-doubt, condemnation and the like, I can promise you that those are not God’s thoughts. Those thoughts hold you captive and make it impossible for you to be the person that God created you to be.
There’s always risk involved when it comes to living out your destiny and just like the caterpillar, you must be willing to be transformed. Are you afraid that you won’t like what God turns you into? I know I have been at times. I’ve wondered what would be left of the old me once I underwent transformation. It just felt safer to just stay the way that I was. I also feared that my “old caterpillar friends” would no longer like me once I was a butterfly and you know what? Some friends just won’t want to stick around once you’re truly living the life that you were created to live and that’s ok. Be willing to let go of some things. To transform means to make a thorough or dramatic change in the form, appearance, or character of…so you may not be able to do that if you continually put yourself in a position where you get dragged into your old life and self. Butterflies fly free and eat sweet nectar. Can you imagine if they decided to hang out with caterpillars all day, sitting on leaves and stuffing their faces on them? What a wasted life that would be! It’s much better to encourage the caterpillars to head toward transformation themselves!
Take the leap and fly! It’s time to let God change, alter, modify, convert, remodel, reshape, remold, redo, reconstruct, rebuild, recast, reorganize, rearrange, reorder, reshuffle, restyle, rework, renew, revamp, renovate, remake and revolutionize you! (yes, I love words!)
And friend, it all starts and happens in your mind…When you start thinking like Jesus thinks it will completely revolutionize your life forever and you will be able to live the life He created you for.
Change how you think and you will see many struggles and sinful habits disintegrate like the body of a caterpillar. The creator of the universe wants to transform your mind to be like the mind of His son Jesus. Will you let Him? Will you participate in the process? It may be scary but I promise you that it will be easier then fighting God through it!
My last point is to tell you that being transformed is not at all the same as becoming more religious. This isn’t about a longer to do list and more rules and regulations to follow as you try to earn brownie points with God. God still loves you even when you fight change and He still loves you when you fail and walk in a sinful matter but…life is so much better as a butterfly then it is as a caterpillar so don’t stay stuck! To walk in His ways is to walk in freedom. Be free friend!
“The enemy can keep you from living free as a butterfly as long as he can deceive you into believing that you are nothing more than a caterpillar, stuck eating leaves all day and not much else.”
Marjolaine Walker
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! 2 Corinthians 5:17
Here are biblical declarations that you can read out loud every day. Declare truth over yourself daily and you will soon believe it! I have included a free printable for you to use, enjoy it!
1- I am a new creation in Christ, the old has gone, the new is here! (2 Corinthians 5:17)
2- The Holy Spirit Guides me into all truth. (John 16:13)
3- I take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ. (2 Corinthians 10:5)
4- I have the mind of Christ. (1 Corinthians 2:16)
5- God is making all things new. (Revelation 21:5)
6- I am confident that God who began a good work in me will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus. (Philippians 1:6)
7- I have been released from the law by dying to it and I’m no longer captive to its power. I can now serve God, not in the old way of obeying the law, but in the new way of living in the Spirit. (Romans 7:6)
8- I am dead to the power of sin and alive to God through Christ Jesus. (Romans 6:11)
9- I put off my old self and I put on the new self which is created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness. (Ephesians 4:22-24)
10- I am forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead. (Philippians 3:13)
