New Vessel, New Wine

What does one do with the opportunity to walk out of chronic illness? We take it and run with it!!! By the crushing from disease, we are emptied during illness, so we can be available for new wine, using a new vessel. We walk through the process and out the other end with joy and abundance, new power and new freedom.

Best For Last

Walking out of chronic illness is like saving the very best for last. Now, after all of the crushing, I get the finest of wine.

“Everyone brings out the choice wine first and then the cheaper wine after the guests have had too much to drink; but you have saved the best till now.”

~ John 2!0 (NIV)

For me, this has been an opportunity I never thought I would see.

It is hard to explain my double-thinking. On one hand, I never gave up hope in surviving chronic illness. On the other hand, at the same time, I was in complete utter awe that I was still alive.

But here I am. Against all odds and only by the grace of God, I lived through it!!!

I have been crushed, totally and completely. I have been emptied out. I am finally available for the new wine.

It is a Godly process, a process we cannot skip over. We need the new wineskin (vessel) to be ready for the new wine of Jesus.

“And no one pours new wine into old wineskins. Otherwise, the wine will burst the skins, and both the wine and the wineskins will be ruined. No, they pour new wine into new wineskins.”

~ Mark 2:22 (NIV)

So, what am I going to do with this opportunity?

Where To Start

I choose to start with being in awe of what God can do with a sinner made from dust.

I choose to start with giving God the glory. He orchestrated all of it.

There truly is no explanation for being alive through the havoc and destruction that took place.

I choose to acknowledge that my body is not my own. I am only a vessel. I certainly am not in total control.

“Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own;”

~ 1 Corinthians 6:19 (NIV)

I choose to be thankful. It makes no difference that I cannot see down the road and have no clue what tomorrow will bring. Today, I choose to be grateful that God created a new vessel out of me. He is now filling me with new wine.

“Then he took a cup, and when he had given thanks, he gave it to them, and they all drank from it.”

~ Mark 14:23 (NIV)

I choose to use this opportunity, in the manner in which God has already planned.

How To Proceed

Give way from the trial/crushing into joy, into the abundance of new wine.

New wine is from grapes that have been through a recent process of crushing. 

In the Hebrew, the words translated ‘new wine’ mean freshly pressed, squeezed, expelled, and trodden out. The grapes have come through the winepress, where they have been trodden underfoot.

God chose to give me the opportunity to start again, as a new wine. I choose not to take that lightly.

I want to be available for Jesus to bring new life out of me, filling me with the Holy Spirit!!

The destruction and darkness that the world has poured into me, has been poured out. It no longer can touch me. Chronic illness was the vehicle to wash it out of me, making a new vessel.

I choose to forgive instead of harboring bitterness to keep my vessel clean and pure. Does not mean I will not forget or not have new boundaries to protect me from this kind of evil and destruction again, but I have chosen to forgive. Forgiving myself as well.

“If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy that person; for God’s temple is sacred, and you together are that temple.”

~ 1 Corinthians 3:17 (NIV)

With a heart of forgiveness, the new vessel, I am available for the new wine Jesus will bring out of me.

I choose not to worry about tomorrow by accepting where I am today.

I choose to see the power and freedom I have been given because of the chronic illness journey.

I choose to yield. My ways are nothing. My life is nothing without God. I choose to yield into God’s loving hands.

I choose to surrender. I am only one drop of wine in the Kingdom of God. There is an eternal picture that is so much bigger than me or my life.

Make me an offering Lord. What do YOU want me to do today?

Never Forget The Blessing Of Illness

I don’t want to ever forget the decades of chronic illness that God walked me through. It has not only crushed me, but it has also refined me, making me who I am today.

Had God not made me exactly as he did, I would not have been able to endure the decades of chronic illness using His resources. Had he not given me the gift of hope, I would not have chosen to endure.

Had God not cleaned out the old vessel, creating a new one, I would not have the opportunity to be made into what God wants me to be.

It is always a choice. As long as we have breath in us, we have the choice to be a new vessel for the Holy Spirit, for Jesus’ new wine.

Thank you for the miracle, Lord.

Make me whatever YOU want me to be!!