During a recent conversation with a precious soul, God reminded me how we need to stop trying to patch ourselves. Just like road workers who are told to patch the highways and byways, those patches never hold very long. Why? Because you can’t add new to the old. Just as the Word of our Living God tells us, that you cannot patch an old garment with new fabric otherwise the rent would be twice as bad. Our roadways have traffic that consistently runs over (beats upon) these patches breaking, cracking and bombarding them until they give way once again. The pot hole is back because the two materials just will not adhere to one another. It’s only when the road workers completely remove the old, broken material and replace it all with new will it hold, will it stand up against the consistent pressure from wear and tear.

This is like unto a person being moved by feelings of wanting a life with God but wants a part of the world still. You cannot mix the two. You cannot force the two “materials” to adhere to one another, because God and mammon will not dwell in the same place. “No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.” Matt ‭6‬:‭24‬ ‭KJV‬‬   A person who is not completely rooted and grounded in the good soil of the Lord will succumb to the consistent pressure (temptations) of the world. They’ll break, crack and be torn apart as the two “materials” separate from one another. What will burst forth, spill out and make the once plantable soil rotten; the fact that the decay was never truly pruned away. Just like a vining plant that has many good roots which produces an abundance of good vines. You must separate, part and allow sunlight to shine upon all of the vines so they equally have a chance for righteous growth. You don’t keep them covered up, you don’t hide them from the light and you don’t plant them with old roots. Otherwise, the entire plant will perish.

“No man putteth a piece of new cloth unto an old garment, for that which is put in to fill it up taketh from the garment, and the rent is made worse. 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.” Matt‬ ‭9‬:‭16‬-‭17‬ ‭KJV‬‬   You see in this verse, when we get saved and surrender all to Jesus, we become a new creature in Christ and Jesus is the “new wine” that now is held within. If you try to keep part of the old life, trying to mix it with the new life that you’ve just surrendered too. Then what will come bursting out is ruined, rotten and cannot withstand the bombardment of the world upon it. Jesus will leave the vessel because He cannot inhabit any vessel that is not fully given to God (a new garment) and the fall will be great. It is my prayer that God would give us all the understanding that we must be sold out to Him alone and stop trying to mix our “fabrics,” our “materials,” and our beliefs.

Lord God, Please forgive me for the time I tried to mix things, mix beliefs and tried to create some form of Christianity that I wanted but did not fit Your Word, Your truth. I was wrong. Thankfully You were merciful, for I am a willing servant of God now and forever.