New Wineskins

I started this year knowing that God wanted to do something very different both in me and through me.  With that in mind, I’ve been trying my best to look at things in fresh ways and to try new strategies and approaches.

Early in the year I started telling myself, “Out with the old and in with the new.”  That was shorthand to remind myself that God needs new wineskins for new wine and that I needed to be open and flexible to His leading me in new ways.  Since then, I’ve repeated that motto to myself countless times and I truly sense that God is doing something very new and fresh in me.  It feels awesome.

I was recently telling a good pastor friend that 2010 was a very hard year of pruning for me but now it certainly seems like that season is over and that I’ve entered into a new season of blessing and fruitfulness.  Don’t get me wrong.  There are still struggles and obstacles but times have definitely changed and I’m clearly in a new season.

I’m sharing all this with you guys because I feel that I’m not alone.  I feel that many or most of you are either in a new season or about to enter one.  My advice to you is to cast aside the old ways of thinking and doing and embrace the new things God has in store for you.  Remember, it takes new, flexible wineskins to contain God’s new wine.  Allow God to stretch you, your routines, and your ways of thinking so that He can do great new things in you.