Will you change your barrel?

I used to wonder why great wine was so expensive. What went into the wine-making process that resulted in $10,000.00 bottles of great-tasting wine.

I had the pleasure of going on the Appleton Estate tour a few months ago. This trip really put things into perspective. I realized it wasn’t just the process of making the wine, that made it worthy of its cost but also the process of aging the wine and the measures that were put in place. These meaures included never reusing an old barrel for new wine.

Thinking about the process brought something Jesus had said into perspective for me. I had never fully grasped why it was integral when Jesus made the declaration of not pouring new wine into old barrels. I now understand! You will never get great costly wine if you reuse a barrel! Why? The barrel would have become compromised after going through the first aging process of the old wine.

Many times I’ve heard persons use this Scripture to refer to persons moving from sinfulness into righteousness. I however, feel that it is not limited to just that! God cannot outpour new blessings or take you to a higher level, if you are stuck in the same mindset/barrel. You have to change your barrel! You cannot ask for blessing if you are not willing to move or change! How do you expect greater gifts if you continue to use the same methods and reside in the same environment that gave you your earlier gifts? Higher-level gifts and blessings require something new! You have to up the antenna! You have to develop new methods! You have to change your barrel!

Think about it! What do you do when you want to advance in your professional life? You either get a new job or new position or you get a new certification or degree. You can’t get a managerial job without the experience or certification! You have to put in something extra! You have to do something you have never done before! You have to change your barrel!

That, my friends, is how you get one step closer to getting great and costly wine! Higher heights require deeper depths! Greater blessings require newer and different efforts!

So tell me, are you willing to change your barrel?