Romans 8:13
In the light of all this, to now continue to live under the sinful influences of the senses is to reinstate the dominion of spiritual death. Instead, we are indebted to now exhibit the highest expression of life inspired by the Spirit. This life demonstrates zero tolerance to the habits and sinful patterns of the flesh. (Mirror Bible)

Have you accessed your new normal?

Psychologists say there are identifiable characteristics for a person who has been battered.

• Though they don’t like the environment they live in; they understand it; they have adjusted to it and are “comfortable”. 
• They are familiar with the emotions associated with interacting with someone who batters them. That is their normal life.
• Statistically if they are able to end the relationship; they get into another relationship where those emotions are similar. Maybe the new person does not beat them, but they generally are someone who is emotionally abusive or has abusive tendencies.
• If they are able to find someone who is not abusive, they struggle with the relationship because the emotions are unknown. 
• For the most part, a battered person continues to return to what’s familiar. They are forever a victim.

It takes something radical to happen for them to get free and stay free. Something radical happened for you.  Jesus died and on the third day, rose again.

2 Corinthians 5:17 Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. (KJV)

In order to walk in your new normal, you have to see yourself the way you were and know what Jesus died for you to be.

* You had no peace, and did not see a way out. Though your life was exhausting, and you did not want to live the way you were living; you had settled for it and accepted it.

• Then you met the Lord. You are no longer comfortable in an environment you don’t like; you don’t have to understand nor adjust.
• Psalm 91:14-16 For here is what the Lord has spoken to me: “Because you loved me, delighted in me, and have been loyal to my name, I will greatly protect you. 15 I will answer your cry for help every time you pray, and you will feel my presence in your time of trouble. I will deliver you and bring you honor. 16 I will satisfy you with a full life and with all that I do for you. For you will enjoy the fullness of my salvation!” (The Passion Translation TPT)

* You were used to being sad, depressed, destitute, and all the other familiar emotions associated with living a life without Christ. That was your normal life.

• Those old emotions are a thing of the past, not your present, and certainly not your future. You no longer associate with the enemy and all the negativity he brought into your life. You have a new normal life.
• Revelation 21:4 God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; and death shall be no more, neither shall there be anguish (sorrow and mourning) nor grief nor pain any more, for the old conditions and the former order of things have passed away. (Amplified Bible, Classic Edition AMPC)

* How many times did you go through the motions? How many self-help books did you buy? How many psychiatrists, therapists, and counselors did you see trying to get out of the life you were living. How many times did you get out and go right back?

• You got out of the revolving door. You no longer want was familiar to you or what was comfortable because you are used to it. You want what the Lord provides.
•  Romans 7:21-25 21 Here’s an important principle I’ve discovered: regardless of my desire to do the right thing, it is clear that evil is never far away. 22 For deep down I am in happy agreement with God’s law; 23 but the rest of me does not concur. I see a very different principle at work in my bodily members, and it is at war with my mind; I have become a prisoner in this war to the rule of sin in my body. 24 I am absolutely miserable! Is there anyone who can free me from this body where sin and death reign so supremely? 25 I am thankful to God for the freedom that comes through our Lord Jesus, the Anointed One! So on the one hand, I devotedly serve God’s law with my mind; but on the other hand, with my flesh, I serve the principle of sin. (The Voice TVT)

* The Lord continued to call you and you answered. This was unfamiliar to you. You did not understand how to accept His love. You wanted to turn the Lord into the same task master you have always lived with.

• Because of Christ, you stop reaching for what used to be like the children of Israel. You allowed the Lord to love you. You allowed Him to teach you how to love and show you what to desire.
• Isaiah 58:14 “Then you will find the joy that comes from serving me. I will make you honored all over the world, and you will enjoy the land I gave to your ancestor, Jacob. I, the Lord, have spoken.” (Good News Translation GNT)

* You continued to do what you had always done and continued to get what you had always gotten. You woke up to the same day and same life, day after day. Forever a victim.

• Through Christ you are no longer a victim; you walk in the victory He bought with His life.
• 2 Corinthians 2:14-16 Yet I am so thankful to God, who always marches us to victory under the banner of the Anointed One; and through us He spreads the beautiful fragrance of His knowledge to every corner of the earth. 15 In a turbulent world where people are either dying or being rescued, we are the sweet smell of the Anointed to God our Father. (The Voice TVT)

You have been set free from the influence of sin. There is no reason to return to that bondage. The time spent with the Lord will change what is comfortable for you. God will create a “new normal” for you.

Please agree with me as I pray:

Father, I thank You for my new normal. Hallelujah! You set me free and transformed me from victim to victor! I thank You because I am no longer tossed back and forth by the bondage of sin. I thank You because the things I used to do; I don’t do anymore. The way I used to respond; I don’t respond anymore. The places I used to go; I don’t go anymore. Not that I can’t do, go, and respond like I used to. I choose not to because you have given me a new way of living. I have a new life in You. You put all the old things away. I repent for every time I allowed circumstances, situations, family, friends, anything or anyone else to pull me back into the old way of doing things. When in the middle of a tough situation, I can remember saying, “If you don’t know, you better ask somebody.” I knew what “somebody” was going to say. “Somebody” would have given a warning about what unpleasant thing I would do or say next. Please keep transforming me; I want to walk in and celebrate my new normal. I might make that statement again. If I do, I want “somebody” to say, “I know who she used to be; now she has changed. Today she walks in the image and likeness of the Lord who created her” Thank You…

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Ask the Lord what He wants to say to you about today’s devotional and journal His response as described here.