New Wine Needs New Wine Skins

Last night before going to sleep, I was reading Matt 9:17 where Jesus says, " Neither do men 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."  This morning, I was further researching this and went to Luke 5:39, where one additional statement is added, " And no one after drinking old wine wants the new, for he says, 'The old is better.'"

I was thinking about these verse as they could be applied to a new move of God in our lives (new wine).  God is constantly at work encouraging us to grow and change, but often we prefer things to stay the same.  We like the way our lives are, preferring the known.  I was thinking about how short sighted that perspective really is - an unwillingness to try something new, because we like the 'taste' of what we already have.  In the wine industry they must constantly produce new wine, for without new wine, they would never have mature wine, they would ultimately run out of the old.  Also, each new years vintage potentially could be the best ever, but one doesn't know for a few years. 

Going back to Jesus' statement, the new wine requires new wineskins because it expands.  Having an inflexible attitude would be the equivalent of old wineskins.  When God wants us to change, He causes things in our lives to stretch us, and we can either go with it and allow ourselves to stretch, or resist.   The results of resisting are that the new wine is lost, and the old wineskin can't hold wine anymore.  In other words it becomes empty and dry, with no refreshing ability.  I know people whose lives are dry and empty, and I think in some ways it might be due to their inability to change, as God desired.  Finally having new wineskins is also about a longer term perspective.  New wine never tastes as good as the old wine initially, but it must be allowed to mature, and in time becomes better tasting.  We need to have flexible attitudes with long-term perspectives to truly have new wineskins.

Lord, I pray that I might have a new wineskin attitude.  Help me to embrace the new wine (change) you pour into my life and help me to trust that this change will bring about maturity and betterment to me.