Renewal vs. Restoration

My Wifey and I recently restored an old dresser to utilize it as our entertainment center.  We are planning to make a concrete top but while we wait for the time to do that project there is still this atrocious lime green top.  It throws the whole thing off. When you look at it you can see all the hard work and a beautiful deep blue entertainment center with a hideous scratched up top. I mean this dresser was the changing table for both our little ones, it has made it through every house purchase and sequential move.  We weren’t ready to dispose of it but rather for us the goal was/is to restore this dresser or bring back what was once good. 

            I’ve been in this process in my own life for a long time.  This process of restoration.  Only until the past few weeks have I realized that restoration is not possible.   To restore means that there was once good inside of me and that I’m able to work harder to bring that back to the surface.  Only after reading and rereading Colossians 3:1-17 have I noticed that I’m going at this all wrong.  For the past 8 years of my Christian walk I’ve been trying to do what God has already done.  You see God does not restore; He renews. He wipes clean the dirt and makes me new again, fresh and ready to face the day despite my past conditions. Paul calls us to put to death our old self and in verse 10 “Put on your new nature, and be renewed as you learn to know your Creator and become like him.”  

Why is renewal so difficult? I mean when I realize that God is doing the work I just need to learn to know Him better it seems so simple.  Truth be told the dresser I restored just got a new paint job, some baskets and handles, the old paint is still there.  It’s just hidden until a scratch shows its true nature.  I’ve lived long enough with a new paint job.  I want to be fully renewed and that means all of my past needs to be put to death and my present and future is devoted to learning to know God better through prayer, reading his word, silence and solitude, living faith in action and loving the people God has given me.  My desire is that this renewal is a celebration of Christs victory over sin and my life becomes a reflection of that victory!

From the thoughts of a new creation.