Crushed grapes. I don’t know what season you are in, friend, but, I have felt the crushing in my own life lately. Crushed yet okay being crushed because I know my Father is refining me.

Are there times you feel crushed? Crushed feelings. Crushed plans. Crushed relationships. Crushed dreams.

If you feel crushed, remember that you are not abandoned. The Refiner wants the crushing to bring new wine in your life.

We don’t have to allow life’s circumstances to crush us. What if we choose to welcome in the crushing so the Father can refine us?

Even if we feel crushed, we have to remember the power that is within us as Paul reminds us in 2 Corinthians 4:7. We have an all-surpassing power in us that is from God and not from us. And even in the crushing, we can rely on God who is sufficient even in our insufficiency.

We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed.

2 Corinthians 4:8

Do you feel like crushed grapes? While the process can be painful, remember the One who is refining you.

He is making something new. He is making new wine. But to have the new, we have to go through the crushing. The grapes will not produce wine without crushing.

If we stay with the old, we will still feel crushed. But if we choose the refining, we will find new wine and new hope.

Neither do men pour new wine into old wineskins. If they do, the skins will burst, the wine will run out and the wineskins will be ruined. No, they pour new wine into new wineskins, and both are preserved.

Matthew 9:17

Refining is not always easy but in the crushing, we take off the old self and choose the new self.

Whatever seems crushed, know that the power within you can make something new.

A new identity.

A new worth.

A new mind.

A new heart.

A new hope.

New wine.

So even if you feel like crushed grapes, know that your Refiner is making something brand new.