If you have received Christ as your personal Savior, then you are a new creation. "The old has gone and the new is here!" Over the past week you have been looking to your past to remember God's power, His faithfulness, those that God has used to develop you as a person, and the ultimate sacrifice Christ made for us. Today, reflect on the words found in 2 Corinthians 5:11-21 about the redemptive power of God's forgiveness. There is nothing more powerful, faithful, sacrificial, and life changing than the forgiveness God has given you through His son Jesus Christ. Today, remember the life change you experienced through God's forgiveness. Completely forget your old life and instead remember the day your life changed forever. Praise God and thank Him for new life in Christ.

2 Corinthians 5:11-21 NLT

We Are God’s Ambassadors

11Because we understand our fearful responsibility to the Lord, we work hard to persuade others. God knows we are sincere, and I hope you know this, too. 12Are we commending ourselves to you again? No, we are giving you a reason to be proud of us, so you can answer those who brag about having a spectacular ministry rather than having a sincere heart. 13If it seems we are crazy, it is to bring glory to God. And if we are in our right minds, it is for your benefit. 14Either way, Christ’s love controls us. Since we believe that Christ died for all, we also believe that we have all died to our old life.15He died for everyone so that those who receive his new life will no longer live for themselves. Instead, they will live for Christ, who died and was raised for them.

16So we have stopped evaluating others from a human point of view. At one time we thought of Christ merely from a human point of view. How differently we know him now! 17This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun!

18And all of this is a gift from God, who brought us back to himself through Christ. And God has given us this task of reconciling people to him. 19For God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, no longer counting people’s sins against them. And he gave us this wonderful message of reconciliation. 20So we are Christ’s ambassadors; God is making his appeal through us. We speak for Christ when we plead, “Come back to God!” 21For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ.