Renewal

Are you familiar with the story of Paul? He was born Saul of Tarsus to Jewish parents who were Roman citizens. Saul was a Roman citizen through his parents. It has been written that Saul was a tentmaker or something similiar by trade but was educated by a religious sect known as the Pharisees. This group consisted primarily of middle class men. The Pharisees rival sect was the Sadducees. The Sadducees were mostly a conservative and aristocratic priestly class. It has been written that the Pharisees were more open to religious innovation than the Sadducees. It has also been written in the New Testament that the most vocal critics of Jesus was the Pharisees. Jesus had some choice descriptive words for the Pharisees (see Matthew 23:27 and Matthew 6:1-6, 16-18). Saul became active in the violent persecution of Christians (see Acts 22: 3-5). However, due to a life changing, personal encounter with the Risen Savior on the road to Damascus, his life was transformed and renewed (See Acts 22: 6-13). He was renamed Paul. His encounter with Jesus, set his life on a new path. He dedicated the rest of his life to proclaiming Jesus as Savior.

Today I was reminded of Paul while studying scriptures. The scriptures that I meditated on was Romans 8:11-15. The Amplified version of Romans 8:11 reads, "And if the Spirit of Him Who raised up Jesus from the dead dwells in you, {then}, He who raised up Christ Jesus from the dead will also restore to life your mortal (short-lived, persishable) bodies through His Spirit Who dwells in you." Saul was a walking dead man, killing alive people-spiritually alive people. Saul was killing and persecuting people who had come to know Jesus and were therefore spiritually alive. He was blinded by religion and thought he was doing God's work by persecuting others. After his conversion, he too became spiritually alive and experienced a renewed sense of purpose and vision. Renewed is defined as to make new, restore to freshness, vigor or perfection, to regenerate-to make new spiritually. Through my study today, I began to realize how much God truly wants to restore and renew His Spirit living power in our lives. We must be willing to bring and leave things with Him that may be preventing the restoral process: hurts, rejection, pursuing our way instead of His way, seeing the jar as half empty instead of half full, and having a victim mentality- just to name a few. This Spirit is for us to live a victorious life now and everyday! Weathering each and every obstacle with God's grace and wisdom knowing that whatever comes, we have the Spirit of God within us helping us to overcome. Spend time with God today and ask Him for His renewing Spirit. Remember- you were created for a purpose!