Ephesians 3:16 That he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man;

I spent decades hiding from people, not the outward and seeming but the inward and real. I could not be real with people because if they came to know what was in my heart, they would shun me or worse. I was a miserable person, guilty of sins I cared not to confess or show. The last thing I wanted was to have anyone know me, the inner man.

2 Corinthians 5:17 tells me that now that I am in Christ I am a new creation. The old man is dead and the new man has a new beginning. I did not know this new man that I am. I had no confidence in me, I am not what I was, I am not what I will be. How can I show others this new man when I don’t even know who I am in the inner man?

The tendency to hide is no longer necessary but I lacked the confidence in this new creature to change the behavior. I had to discover who I was before I could let anyone in. The natural approach to moving into a new house is to discard ugly things and keep what things are attractive. What I failed to understand in those early days was that all things must pass away, leave everything behind.

V17a That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith;

He is the owner, resident, decorator, and by faith the One who invites others in to view this inner man. The same mistakes I made as the old man, I was willing to make again, decisions for myself. Verse 3 begins with; How that by revelation he made known unto me the mystery; which is what He is doing in this inner man. The essence of any mystery is that it is not revealed until after it is done. And here I was trying to decorate a house that was not mine.