17 Neither do people pour new wine into old wineskins. If they do, the skins will burst; the wine will run out and the wineskins will be ruined. No, they pour new wine into new wineskins, and both are preserved.” –Matthew 9:17
Just as old wineskins lose their flexibility with use and will not hold the fermenting activity of new wine, so our hearts can be inflexible and unable to move with the fresh ways that God expresses himself. This period of fasting is a way of centering in on God and asking him to re-create a heart that is open to the new and present things he is doing.
Do you find yourself longing to return to how your faith once was? Do you look back to some moment in the past and wish that all would return to that time? Perhaps you long that your church would keep singing the songs it once did or that the patters of some bygone traditions would re-emerge. Ask God today for a heart open to the current ways he is working.
The new wine that God would pour into your heart today involves a renewed vision for your future and a purpose for your life that likely expands how you presently see yourself.
Jesus Christ has new wine for you today. Ask him to help you do the work of shedding the old and making room for the new!