You are...

So lately I've been praying a lot for me not to be me. What I mean by that is I know what my flesh wants and I know how I use to be. When I think like I use to and want to take control of everything like my flesh is telling me to do I usually get mad at myself and to be honest I get a little frustrated with God. I get mad at myself because I know that I shouldn't act or think like that. When I get mad at God it's usually because I ask him to change me completely and not let me be the way I use to be but I don't feel any different. The funny thing about that is God has made me new, God has changed me from what I once was. I was just reading in Ephesians 5:8 and Paul was writing to the church in Ephesus and was telling them that they were once darkness, but now they are light in the Lord. Did you catch the language Paul uses in this verse? I know in the bible it talks about us being in the dark and now we are in the light but that's not what he says here. He tells them that they were darkness but now are light. So why am I telling you this, why is this important? What the Lord has spoken to me is that if we think that we are either in light or darkness we lose how big this is to us. When I think of the idea of being in something or out of something I think well we can just go back right into or out of that thing. But if we were and are in darkness or light, then these are life transforming things. If we live thinking we are either in or out of darkness or light then I believe we will never have a sense of peace because we will be constanly wondering where we are. If we know that we once were darkness but now we are light then I believe we can start living in the Peace of the Lord.
This truth of knowing that we aren't what we use to be and that we are made new is freeing. If you are struggling with old ways of thinking or acting then stop buying into those lies. The enemy would love for you to think that you're still the person of your past. Well I'm here to remind you what God has promised you, YOU ARE A NEW CREATION... (2 COR 5:17) But we need to remember just as it said in Ephesians that we are light in the Lord, the very next things he writes is that we need to live as children of light. That means that our lives need to reflect our faith. My pastor said something on Sunday that this falls into. He said that God's promises come with conditions and directions. The promise here is that we are light now, but now that we know that we need to make sure we keep our end of the deal up.
So my prayer for us today is that we realize that we are new, we are children of light. I pray that with this revelation we start taking the proper steps and actions towards living our lives as children of light. I pray that God would break those chains of our pasts that have no place in our lives. I also pray that God would give us the strength and faith to always know that we don't have to live in our pasts and that we would no longer let our pasts get in the way of our glorious futures in Christ Jesus.