A fresh, clean, never been lived before month is here. It still has the tags on it! Brand spanking new days and new weeks like you’ve never seen before in August 2021. Before your eyes glaze over assuming this is a month like all the others, and you withdraw to the numbness of it all, let me breathe some life into you. This month doesn’t have to be like last month. August has the potential to be your game changer, your turning point, your breakthrough, your fresh new start on the 8th month of the year that changes every single month to come.

Could that be possible for you? Could the things you struggle with really be overcome this month? Could real progress really happen here, starting today? I mean why not? Why couldn’t it be possible for you here right now? Do you really believe God has rendered you incapable of change? Do you really believe God has counted you out and declared you a lost cause? Do you really believe God has all that power, but he’s decided he won’t be wasting it on you?

Oh how it must break his heart to see his girl believing she is anything less than who he created her to be. YOU are his girl, and he still sees your greatest potential within you … and guess what … he’s not giving up on you! You’re hearing this today because he is calling you out of the rut you’ve been stuck in, out of the darkness you’ve been wandering in, out of the repetitive cycle you’ve been dwelling in, and whispering the hope of new beginnings to you.

This is your new beginning. God isn’t waiting until the New Year, he says this day of this week, in this month of this year, is exactly where he wants to show you the new things he’s been aligning for you.

The Lord says in Ezekiel 36: 26-27 “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws.”

Do you understand what God is saying here? He is saying he will give you a new heart and new spirit and as a result you will desire different things. When your desires change, your thoughts change. When your thoughts change, your actions change. It’s not a struggle. It’s no longer an exhausting battle where you continually end up on the losing side. Everything changes when your desires change. Desires change with this new heart and spirit from God.

Do you remember the old cartoon with Sylvester the cat? He was always trying to catch Tweety Bird. But in a moment of conflict, Sylvester would have the little angel on one shoulder and the little devil on the other. The battle was which one would he listen to. The angel told him to be nice, the devil told him to eat the bird. The devil always won and the chase was on.

Sometimes it feels like that in our own lives. The angel tries to remind us of our priorities, our goals, our commitments, our faith … but that darn little devil on our shoulder comes in with temptations of what we can have right now, what feels good in the moment, and what satisfies the craving.

Maybe you wake up today to a reality caused by caving to that little devil. Maybe what you most want is not what you have because you were swayed by the offerings of what you wanted now. Maybe you’re living well below the potential God placed within you, and you know it, but darn it you just can’t seem to change it.

It’s time to receive that new heart and new spirit God has been offering you. His Spirit changes your desires at the core. You will no longer fight his will, you will deeply desire his best plan. You will no longer be swayed by the detours of the little devil, you will be fully focused on the little angel on the other shoulder guiding you to your destiny.

This new heart and spirit makes you more responsive to God’s will. Your old heart was easily distracted, easily derailed, easily discouraged, but the new heart God is offering you is full of hope, it is strengthened, courageous, and mighty.

I often read the stories of David, Moses, Ruth, Mary, Joseph, Paul, Peter, Noah, all these great people in the Bible and wonder how in the world they heard so clearly from God. How did they know what God was telling them to do? How did they overcome their own struggles to step into the life God intended for them? I believe the answer is simple … they work functioning with a new heart and spirit that made them more responsive to God’s will.

Could it really be that simple? Absolutely! When God’s Spirit is guiding us, we no longer stumble over the things that once held us back. We are strengthened like never before. We are able to follow through on our commitments, make real and lasting changes, live up to our God given potential, and become who we were created to be.

Receive your new heart and spirit. This is what will guide you. This is what will change everything.

If you have a wayward child you’re praying for, or maybe a wayward spouse or wayward friend, the only thing that needs to change for them is their heart and spirit. That’s it. When they receive the new heart and spirit God is so desperately trying to give them, they will immediately become more responsive to his great plans for their life. They will no longer run from it, they will run to it. They will start making choices that change the trajectory of their lives.

God can do in an instant what we can’t help them do in a lifetime. He can give them a new heart and spirit that changes their desires. And when desires change, thoughts change. When thoughts change, actions change. When actions change, lives change. This is his plan. This is his will. Join the forces of the angels and pray they would receive what God is offering them.

Now, back to you. Won’t you pray YOU would receive what God is offering you? With this new month showing up at your front door with the tags still on it, won’t you receive it as the gift it is and believe it can really be different for you this time. This doesn’t have to be more of the same. This doesn’t have to be another chapter in the story of you struggling, you failing, and you losing. No, not when you have a loving Heavenly Father with all the power in the world aimed right at you saying “Want me to change your heart? Want me to give you a new Spirit? I’m in if you are!”

Yes Lord, give us that new heart. Give us your Spirit that makes us more responsive to your will. Change our desires to be in alignment with your best plans for our lives. We are ready for this to be different!