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WW.005: New Wine | by Hillsong Worship
I was going to write about The Blessing today but this morning all I can think of is New Wine. This song is one of my favorites but you obviously get it by now that every song I bring up is most likely a favorite of mine. Right now I cannot get this song out of my head. Do you ever have days like that?
I don’t like to complain but my life is in a pretty stressful state right now. I can’t be very specific abut it publicly right now but basically I am in a waiting room that effects the relevance of most every decision I make, financial, relational, and even how I utilize my “spare” time. It is an aggravating place to be especially when you can’t really say much about it to some of the people you spend most of your time with. I am stuck between wondering if I should do more in the mean time or use the time to do less and prepare by resting more and trying to just recenter myself. I realize I am not the only one facing such difficult circumstances and of course I also know that there are so many people dealing with worse circumstances right now. I know all that and it keeps me from complaining too much but I also need to be reminded that my pain, confusion, frustration, and trials are valid too. I don’t normally give myself permission to be the one who needs someone to listen to me. On the contrary, I usually try to be the one who is always there for others to vent to.
“In the crushing, In the pressing, You are making new wine” It is hard to see this truth when the vice grips of life are squeezing you to your limits. The part we forget is that our limits is not where our power stops! We have the power of God on our side! When new wine was made in biblical times they would carry it in wine skins which were normally made of goat skin…Kind of gross if you think about it but it is what they did. The thing is when an old wine skin reaches it’s limit and you put new wine into it, it breaks! I feel a lot like an old wine skin lately and things in my life are being crushed and pressed from all sides. The Lord is making new wine and I am about to burst. If we may segway into another biblical analogy of our cup running over, that is basically what is going on here. the wine is made of blessings. The things in life being crushed and pressed are distractions and superfluous things that we cling to in our sinful humanity which are being destroyed. However, it must be so to enable the flow of blessing into our lives and the live of those around us from our overflow.
I have said before and I truly believe that blessings and stresses are synonymous but that is only when we look at life through our own power. We keep forgetting that we have God’s power! The power that rose Jesus from the grave and defeated death is alive in us! so yes when we look at things we love or have found our security and purpose in, begin to be torn down, rearranged, or ripped from our grip, it can be unsettling to say the least. We can live in a constant state of stress and aggravation trying our hardest to hold all the wine inside our feeble old wine skins or we can surrender our finite strength and allow the breakthrough! When we experience that the wine it held will splash all over us and everyone in our vicinity. The breaking may seem like a failure on our part but it is that example that others will look at and see the power of God and how He makes us new again. When one wine skin breaks, they would make another one. God wants to give you a new wine skin so why are you trying to hold on so tightly to the weak old one you’ve had!? Let it burst it’s blessings over your life and trust that God will replace it with one brand new and stronger than before!
Blessings FAM!
What is being crushed and pressed in your life right now? How can that be used to produce new wine in your life? Why are you still desperately trying to hold onto your old wine skin? Sometimes we breakdown before a breakthrough but that is okay. Once it happens and we choose to lean on God’s power through it, those are the examples of how to live this Christian life that people need to see! You may not be able to answer the questions I just posed but the best part and one of the hardest parts to remember is that we don’t have to understand how it will all work out. We just have to trust and surrender it all to God. “So I yield to You and to Your careful hand. When I trust you I don’t need to understand!”
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MM.005: Be Present
Sometimes the difference between a bad habit and a good one is simply a perspective shift. I believe that shift is grace. If you struggle with procrastination like I do (I may [definitely] be writing this the morning of it’s posting yet again) then it is easy to beat yourself up every time you realize you have mere hours, or minutes even, to accomplish something that you either promised yourself or, even worse, someone else! There is nothing more self deprecating in my personal book then letting someone else down on a promise I have made them. Even little things matter so much to me when I know someone else is counting on it. That probably stems from something much deeper that I need to work through but it is not exactly the point of today’s post.
Today I want to expound on the fact that, in those moments of realizing that you’ve unintentionally procrastinated once again, you have a choice to make. Your choice is between a) beating yourself up about it and guilt tripping yourself over it even once you’ve completed it because, if you had not procrastinated, you could have done it so much better! or b) give yourself grace and realize the reason it may have slipped your mind is that the habit of being present, that you have been hoping to practice and be better at, is beginning to come easier. You shouldn’t have to work so hard to remember to do the things you care about. I know this can get touchy and I am trying my best to keep out of the weeds on this topic but, some things (hobbies, jobs, relationships…etc) just do not matter!
Okay so maybe I am going to have to psychoanalyze myself a bit deeper today. The bible tells us to “let [our] yes be yes and [our] no be no, so that [we] may not fall under condemnation” (James 5:12). We cannot do all things. We are human and have our limits. It also says that we “have the right to do anything — but not everything is beneficial [we] have the right to do anything — but not everything is constructive” (1 Cor 10:23) It is not that these things don’t matter at all but they just may not need to matter to you. Even good things may not be for us to take care of. helping the homeless matters but your gifting may not be what is necessary to meet that need for people. Healing the sick matters but you may not be a doctor. Feeding the hungry matters but you might stink at cooking. They may be starving but eating the food you make may seem like a worse punishment to them then the starvation hahaha. These are broad examples but you get my point, we are not all made to do all the things!
The good news is, you are made to do something! The challenge we have is to figure that out and the only way we can truly discover it is by testing the waters in a few areas until we find it. The part we need to be better at, once we find something that fits, is letting go of the things that we realize are no longer meant for us, instead of hanging on to all the things and trying to fit more in on top because “it’s a good thing so i can’t drop it”. There are a lot of good things and some of them may have been your calling for a while but the time for those things may need to be over. “For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven” (Eccl 3:1)
Back to my title point, learn to be present! be intentional in each moment to learn what God is trying to teach you. Let Him show you what needs to matter in your life. When we get past the negative self talk every time we mess up or drop the ball on something, it frees our minds to evaluate the true importance of things in our lives. There is a reason we tend to let certain things slide and it is usually an indicator of the direction God is trying to lead you in. If you take time each time you fail at something to remind yourself why you do the the thing in the first place, you will either remember a really good reason and be more motivated to do it better next time or you will come up blank and that right there is your sign that perhaps the season for that thing in your life has come to an end and it is time to walk away. It can be hard to walk away even when you make that call but remember that every time you walk away from something, you are walking towards the next good thing God has for you! How exciting is that!?
Blessings FAM!
What is one area that you tend to put things off? Why do you think you do that? Is your why for that thing no longer relevant to you? Can you even remember why you did it in the first place? Take some time to write out a list of all your commitments down the left side of a page in a notebook. Then go back and, next to each one, write your reason why you do that thing. Then go back a third time and prayerfully ask God if that why is still in season. It may be hard to accept what He tells you but this is the only way we can get true clarity in life. We must take time regularly to intentionally reflect and adjust our attention more towards the places where God is working and leading us. Only then can we truly be present.
