While growing up, I often rode a tricycle or bike that had previously belonged to my older brother or sister. They were anything but new. How I longed to have a new bike, one that was my own! I remember looking at a magazine and on the back cover there was a beautiful bicycle; it was the newest thing out. I really wanted that bike! Later, I went to the bicycle shop with my dad, and while he was shopping, I looked at bikes. Sure enough, I found the same one that I had seen in the magazine. I looked it over and sat on it until my dad came back. In fact, he had to almost pull me out of the store! I told him, “I would sure like that bike.”

I had a birthday coming. I knew that it was a long stretch to ask for a new bike, but that was all I could think about. When my birthday arrived, I came home from school and opened the garage door, and there was that bike! I could hardly believe that my folks had gone that far. I rode that bike up and down the street for hours, and I still remember feeling like I had attained the ultimate.

In was a bit later in life when I truly attained the ultimate—I prayed and God made my life brand new. When He changes a life He does not leave that person with flat or wobbly tires or bent frames like the bikes I inherited from my brother and sister. For the new convert, addictions, dependencies, and the shame of sin are things of the past. God makes all things new, in the beautiful condition that we had been longing for. He gives the very best.

If God can regenerate a spirit and make it totally new, surely there is nothing He cannot do. The Bible tells us that God’s mercy is new every day and that every good and perfect gift comes from Him. If you have a need today, take it to the One who only gives good things and let Him do that for you.