Thursday

Related Verses
2 Cor. 4:16
16 Therefore we do not lose heart; but though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day.

Col. 2:19
19 And not holding the Head, out from whom all the Body, being richly supplied and knit together by means of the joints and sinews, grows with the growth of God.

2 Cor. 3:16, 18
16 But whenever their heart turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away.
18 But we all with unveiled face, beholding and reflecting like a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, even as from the Lord Spirit.

Lam. 3:22-23
22 It is Jehovah’s lovingkindness that we are not consumed, For His compassions do not fail;
23 They are new every morning; Great is Your faithfulness.

Psa. 68:19-20
19 Blessed be the Lord, who day by day loads us with good; God is our salvation. Selah
20 God is to us A God of deliverance, And with Jehovah the Lord Are the goings forth even from death.

Related Reading
As our mortal body, our outer man, is being consumed by the killing work of death, our inner man, that is, our regenerated spirit with the inward parts of our being (Jer. 31:33; Heb. 8:10; Rom. 7:22, 25), is being metabolically renewed day by day with the supply of the resurrection life. (2 Cor. 4:16, footnote 3)

After we have been regenerated, we have God, but we do not have much of God. This is why Colossians 2:19 says that we need to grow with the growth of God…We grow by the increase of God within us…When we have God in us to the fullest, we will have the full growth…When God is increasing within us, His new element is being added into us. When the divine element comes into us, it renews us regardless of whether we are slow or quick in our natural disposition. As we are contacting God, God infuses Himself as the divine element into our being. This new element is added into our existing element. (CWWL, 1989, vol. 2, “Being Renewed Day by Day,” p. 357)

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God desires to add Himself into our being, but He does not increase in us when we do not contact Him. We may go through a period of time in which we do not contact God or pray to Him. Instead, we are doing everything by ourselves and in ourselves. During this time, God is not added into our being, and we are not increasing with the increase of God…Our morning watch with the Lord is not just for us to exercise our mind to read the letter of the Bible, but it is for us to exercise our spirit. This is why we have to say, “O Lord Jesus.” Our calling on the Lord is our spiritual breathing. We have to contact God by praying to Him and calling on Him. Then He adds Himself into us. When we contact Him, He is adding more and more of the divine element into our being. As the new element of God is being added into our being, this new element metabolically renews us. I may be a quick person naturally, but because God’s element comes into my being, this element renews my natural habit.

Sometimes God may allow the church to pass through a “storm”…because He wants us to be renewed. The tragic thing is that while we are suffering in the “storm,” we would remain the same with no renewing…We have to pray, “Lord, I don’t want to remain the same. I do not want to remain the same this year as I was last year. I want to be renewed day by day.”…Daily we need to contact God, open ourselves up to Him, and let Him come into us to be a new addition into us day by day.

Moment by moment we have to receive God so that He can be added into us, and we have to reject ourselves to receive the death of Christ so that we can cooperate with the Lord within us. Then we will enjoy not only the renewing capacity but also the renewing result, which is a metabolic change in our behavior, in our character, in our disposition, and even in our habit…When we experience God in Christ daily, we will see that God’s intention is to renew us bit by bit, especially to renew our habit. This is the real experience of being renewed day by day. For this purpose God raises up all kinds of environments to consume our outer man so that our inner man can be renewed day by day.

When all of the Lord’s children pass through the process of renewing to become the New Jerusalem, they will be in a state of being fully renewed. The holy city is called the New Jerusalem because it has no old element of God’s old creation. As we pass through afflictions, there needs to be a continual renewing taking place in us day by day so that God can accomplish His heart’s desire. (CWWL, 1989, vol. 2, “Being Renewed Day by Day,” pp. 357-358, 360-361, 363)

Further Reading: CWWL, 1989, vol. 2, “Being Renewed Day by Day,” chs. 1—2; CWWL, 1984, vol. 2, “Elders’ Training, Book 2: The Vision of the Lord’s Recovery,” ch. 3