Have you become totally impatient with yourself? I have heard even the strongest Christians cry in utter frustration, "What's wrong? I'm supposed to be a 'new creation' in Christ, but nothing seems to be changing. It's the same old me!"

You may spend wakeful nights, feeling you can't possibly measure up to God's expectations of you, but put your mind to rest. Realize that spiritual growth is a process; sometimes a long process. Genuine maturity does not happen overnight.

The following Scripture, with which you may be very familiar, offers some helpful insights: "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold all things have become new" (2 Corinthians 5:17, NKJV). In the original language the full meaning is that old things are in the process of passing away; behold, all things are in the process of becoming new.

This refers directly to your life. What God is telling you is that all things in your soul and your innermost being are in the process of being transformed in and through His Life!

Don't be impatient. Don't be frustrated with yourself when progress doesn't come as quickly as you'd like. You aren't failing God. In His time He will complete a work in you that far exceeds what you could ever imagine or believe!

Heavenly Father, I thank You that deep within me, You never stop working, completing what You have begun, and that nothing can foil Your perfect plan. Help me to be patient not only with others, but with myself. Strengthen me to resist frustration and self-condemnation and replace them with glory and praise for what You are doing, and will ever continue to do in the process of making me a new creation in Your Son. In Jesus' Name, Amen.