renovation and renewal

"In order for you to do something you've never done, you have
to be someone you've never been." - Les Brown

Interesting thought, isn't it? Makes me think... In order to do the things I desire to do but never can seem to accomplish, there has to be a revolution in who I am, not just in how I act. I can't be the same old person and at the same time act in a completely new way. It's a concept that's touched on multiple times in Scriptures, though perhaps in different contexts.

"Likewise every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit." -- Matthew 7:17-18
"Can both fresh water and salt water flow from the same spring? My brothers, can a fig tree bear olives, or a grapevine bear figs? Neither can a salt spring produce fresh water." -- James 3:11-12
"Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind." -- Romans 12:2
"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!" -- 2 Corinthians 5:17

In order for me to accomplish anything new and better, I must first be changed. As Jesus instructed the Pharisees in Matthew 23:26, "First clean the inside of the cup and dish, and then the outside also will be clean." The inside, the heart of a person must be cleansed before the outside actions will be pure. I must allow God to take the person I am and mold me into the person He desires that I be. That transformation is one in which I become a new creation, able to accomplish all things through Christ!