I spoke briefly with Pastor Choco De Jesús while he was here and he said something to me that is still haunting me. I had expressed regret about not doing something. He said, “It is never too late.” I am 64 years old. I have the excuse, “Old dogs can’t…” but he looked right at me, he knew I was an old dog, yet he challenged me, “It is never too late.”
Regardless of our age, many of us are bogged down by our “old self”. Many of us continue to carry the burden of old feelings, refusing to allow them to be replaced with new ones. Many of us have had a new car, at least new to us, something that we were proud to have, only to have it damaged by a negligent driver. Even years later, after the car is rusting in a junk yard, replaced by a much better vehicle we still relive those feelings of having that old car wrecked. Why? We have such a hard time letting go of the past. But Paul commands us to “put on the new self” and live now by the power of Christ.
We can hold on to feelings about the past, let them drag us down, cause us to rust away or we can look to Christ who took all our past upon himself on the cross, and nailed it there. He left our past, our sins, our regrets, our defeats on that cross. We need to leave them there too. Through faith, we die to sin, we’re completely forgiven, and we receive a brand-new life. In Him, we literally get a completely new and far better self.
Paul reminds us that we are being made in the image of Christ, indicating this is a process. As we allow Jesus to haul more and more of our old stuff to the junk yard, we begin to realize we’re less and less old and rusty. We’re actually becoming newer and better. Moving to the center of God’s Kingdom takes a lifetime. So, don’t give up. It’s not too late, you’re not too old, you’ve never been too damaged, and you’ve never been too worthless for God to fulfill His greatest purpose in you. Jesus defeated all that which would stop us. You just need to take that first step of faith into the center, and let the Holy Spirit be your guide from there.
And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. - Colossians 3:17
