I had a great 50km bike ride with my friend Mike Scott through beautiful west London yesterday, and when I had a puncture I was reminded of a powerful principle about “putting off the old” before you can “put on the new.” I stopped, took the wheel off, removed the puncture inner tube, pulled out a new one, and was about to fit the new inner tube into the tyre it when Mike stopped me and started inspecting the tyre. He was looking for what caused the puncture, and sure enough, there was a tiny thorn still pierced through the tyre, just waiting to do exactly the same thing to my brand new tube. It took a little while to remove the thorn, and then I was ready to fit the new tyre and continue the ride. Thanks for saving me a long walk home Mike, and reminding me that I’ve got t take the fig leaves off (by repentance) before I put on the robe of righteousness (by grace through faith in Christ)…

“You were taught…to put off your old self … to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.”  – Ephesians 4 verses 22-24

Here’s a video I shot on my iPhone on our ride and plugged into iMovie…(2.5 minutes)…

What do you need to “put off” today (by confession, repentance, receiving forgiveness, renewing your mind to truth, etc), so that you can “put on” (by grace, faith, renewing your mind to truth) what God has so generously provided and is ready to give you? He DOES make ALL things new!

Remember: The greatest obstacles to your future and destiny are often not whats ahead of you, but rather they are the old things behind you which you are still dragging along. Let them go and be launched into Gods new for you today…