New Wine in New Wineskins!

Scripture:
Matthew 9:17 
¹⁷ Neither do men put new wine into old bottles: else the bottles break, and the wine runneth out, and the bottles perish: but they put new wine into new bottles, and both are preserved.

Devotion:

Jesus spoke this parable to illustrate a powerful truth about His Kingdom. In Christ's day, wineskins were constructed from the skins of animals. As the wine fermented, it expanded, and so the wineskins had to stretch. The old skins did not have the elasticity for stretching and would burst if the new wine was poured into them, so the skin and the wine put within would be lost.

This parable urges change within ourselves. Jesus did not just come to patch up old religious systems; he meant to bring in something new: new life, a new covenant, and a new way of approaching God. One must, considering this, become open to believing God's message. One's heart must willingly be invigorated, trained, and made pliable to receive the overflow of the work God is doing in one's life.

More often than not, we retain our old mindsets, traditions, and inappropriate habits that impede God's fine work in us. If we reject them, we will miss the new wine of the Holy Spirit. Thus, God needs us to be transformed into new wineskins filled with His grace, power, and purpose.

Are there areas where you are relying on what tradition dictates, being disciplined in themselves, trying to be compliant so that they carry some part of the fresh work of God in your life?; Even if you come upon a huge resistance, beg God to make new wineskins of you, where you would receive whatever he has.

Prayer:

Gracious Father, thank You for this new life found in Christ. Help me to let go of all my lowly ways that will not hold up in Your perfect plan. Let my heart be like new wineskins that are pliable, trainable, and open for Your Holy Spirit to go to work in a fresh way. Fill me with wisdom, and renew me daily so I might be on the same page with You. In Jesus' mighty and healing name, Amen.