Scripture: 2nd Corinthians 4:16
So we do not lose heart. Even though our outer nature is wasting away, our inner nature is being renewed day by day.
Thought for the Day: While at Minister’s Week at Brite Divinity School last week, I heard a lecture in which the speaker talked about the language of renewal, reenergizing, restoring and revitalization. All these words assume a return to something that was, but our speaker pointed out that our God is not about returning to what was. Instead, God is about doing something complete new (Isaiah 43:19—See, I am doing a new thing). The speaker encouraged us to think about the money and time wasted in the life of the church to return to something that was — instead of embracing something new, specifically the new thing God is setting before the church.
Of course, there are scriptures that appear to reference renewal or revitalization, but the word in the Greek that is translated in the above passage as renewed is Anakainosis, which is a combination of the prefix ana and the word that means new, unprecedented or uncommon. The prefix can mean backward or again, but it also can mean upward or through. Paul never talks about returning to the past, but moving upward into something fresh and different. And this new thing has nothing to do with tinkering or modifying. It is a substantive change. When Paul speaks of our inner nature being Anakainosis, he has no desire for us to return to our old selves. Instead, he wants us to be a new creation. The old has past away, and in Christ, there is no returning to what was… even if what was happen to be good in its moment.
Let’s be a church that is not about revival, but about being alive because of what God has done and is doing in our midst; let’s not look back, but forward and upward; let us see a true substantive change within us – individually and collectively.
Prayer: As your Spirit moves among us, O God of All Creation, make us new, inside and out—something beautiful and unique for this moment in time. Amen.
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