New Wineskins

"No one sews a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment. If he does, the new piece will pull away from the old, making the tear worse. And no one pours new wine into old wineskins. If he does, the wine will burst the skins, and both the wine and the wineskins will be ruined. No, he pours new wine into new wineskins." - Jesus, Mark 2:21-22

So I have to have read this verse a thousand times before, but last night as I prayed, 'Lord speak to me what I need to hear, even if I won't like it', this is what he brought me to. It really kinda hit me. Because I realize that I'm frusterated at some of the patterns and cycles of failure in my life, and sometimes I want to get frustrated at God for those things. 'You promise to help me why am I still failing?' Or in my less childish moments, 'Why can't I seem to get this under control?' And I got to thinkin' that perhaps Jesus is trying to give me new wine, but I haven't gotten new wineskins yet. I've known for a long time that Jesus is the one who has to change my heart on things, to heal it from its brokenness. No amount of human effort will change the deep brokennesses we all cary. But once you realize that, the temptation is sit back and ask Jesus why he hasn't finished the project yet. What's the deal -- you're supposed to be fixing my heart.

But that's not the way it works.

You can't expect God's new life for you to fit inside your old habits and ways of living. It's true that Jesus is going to bring new life and revive and restore what you could not have yourself, but you've gotta provide the infrastructure for that life to continue living and growing in you. I've been sittin' watching this new life try to turn over and get started, but I haven't been willing to do the hard work myself -- to change my bad habits and behavior. Huh.


Lord forgive me for my laziness and for my love of what you tell me will destroy me.


New wineskins for new wine... Sounds like a good deal to me.