In 2015, I bought a house that had been built in 1994 and had been treated well. We painted, added new carpet and some lighting, and it was ready to use. In 2017, we bought the house next door. It had experienced a massive fire, and the only course of action was to tear all of it down and build new on the space.

This is a question that should be asked in every area of life. When you realize that your behavior needs to change, you must consider whether this is a remodeling project or a total rebuild.

Some of your habits may simply need to be modified. You have been a good, moral person, and your leap of faith did not require much more than adding Jesus.

But many of your actions might need a complete overhaul. You have built your life doing the same thing your parents did. Moral thinking was not part of your consideration. Nothing you did was producing the type of career, family, or personal satisfaction that Jesus desires for you.

Paul tells the Christians in Ephesus, “With regard to your former way of life, put off your old self” (Ephesians 4:22). The old needed to go to make room for the new.

One reason so many Christians struggle to experience the life God desires for them is that they are trying to remodel a condemned structure. Perhaps the best thing to do is start over.