As a little girl, I dreamed of a princess transformation like the one Cinderella experienced at the hands of her fairy godmother. I think even as adults, women (secretly) would love to have a magic wand waved over them to change their hair, their dress, their shoes and then whisk them off in a carriage to a ball with a handsome prince. And little boys (and sometimes girls too) dream of being the best baseball player and winning the championship, or being the strong knight in shining armor who heroically rescues the damsel in distress. We can often wait our entire lives with expectation for the one thing that will be like the fairy godmother’s wand—the thing that will change our lives for the better and cancel out all our problems, leaving only the beautiful, strong and heroic people basking in the glory of it all.
So, we wait. And wait. And get frustrated. We fill the space with all sorts of things — maybe a marriage, or kids, or a career change, or weight loss. Maybe one of those things that we hope will finally sort it all out for us and make us feel like the princess or knight we’ve been waiting to be. But none of these things do the trick.
The offer of Jesus seems crazy. He says, “Gather up all your messy, yucky life stuff and give it to me and in exchange, I’ll give you my perfect life and identity.” It’s no longer I who lives, but Christ who lives in me. (Gal 2:20) We don’t often realize it, but He is offering the very thing we’ve been wanting our whole lives and have been trying to squeeze out of all sorts of different dreams and goals. He is offering a life of value, worth, love, peace and joy. Who we are changes when we accept his exchange offer. This gift of Life. We are transformed into a new creation. We still drag behind us the baggage from the past life that we’ve exchanged for His perfect Life, so we still act according to that sometimes. It’s like a princess going back to digging through the garbage heap to find food because she’s forgotten she’s a princess. Or a famous baseball player walking away from a game because he doesn’t believe he can perform well at baseball.
If you have admitted you need a new Life and have accepted the gift of Jesus’ offer of His, you move forward with the confidence that you have it. And you get to live like it! Going back to the mess and the normal old way of doing things doesn’t make sense anymore.
On an everyday basis, I get to ask God to be everything I need for the day, for He promises He will be. He has given us His very Life, which contains all the patience, love, kindness, compassion and peace I need for today no matter what comes. Each moment, I recognize the remnants of my past life aren’t going to help me, and in fact are going to get me into a bigger mess. So, I need Jesus for this moment and the next and the next.
The beautiful result of this constant need moment by moment is that I am in relationship with Him in a way I have never been before. I am not trying to please Him—He is already pleased. I am not trying to get it all right—in Him, I am all right. I am not trying to prove I’m something—I am of great value. My worth is defined by His Life in me, which means I am a pearl of great price to Him.
You are His kid when you move into the kingdom of Light. Don’t leave the treasure chest of the royal household untouched while you try to figure out how to do life with your old baggage!
My old identity has been co-crucified with Messiah and no longer lives; for the nails of his cross crucified me with him. And now the essence of this new life is no longer mine, for the Anointed One lives his life through me—we live in union as one! My new life is empowered by the faith of the Son of God who loves me so much that he gave himself for me, and dispenses his life into mine! Galatians 2:20 TPT