The beginning of each New Year brings the promise of new purpose, new goals, new hope and new intentions. It is a removal of the old things, a fresh new start, and as we prepare for a better future.
It was more than twelve years ago when I made a decision to rededicate my life to the Lord. I was celebrating my birthday with my husband. We had dinner with our family and friends, ending the night early, enjoying our solitude in our newly coupled relationship.
It was a night of new beginnings for the two of us. It was the very night that we both, together, surrendered our lives to the Lord.
It was the following year that I had what I considered a near death experience. Prior to marrying my husband, I had been living a life that looking back, had become very selfish. After a difficult divorce more than five years before, I had made some choices that ultimately, led me to that point in my life. It was a period in my life, when I had walked away from the Lord. I refused to listen, insistent I could do things my own way. And after a very narrow escape (from almost dying), God did give me a second chance.
Finding My Way
God showed me His grace and mercy, like I never knew it before. I became the “bell sheep” in my own story, and never again did I want to leave His side.
After many years of leading my own misguided life, I knew that it was finally time to put my faith to the test. I realized that it was time to change me, all of me, and it had to be done from the inside out.
What I found to be true is that in my own strength, there’s nothing I can do without Him. There’s no peace; there’s no joy. There’s nothing I can buy; there’s no satisfaction that can ever sustain me. I had to let go of the things of this world, to finally see what I was missing. I had to give my life over to God, to truly understand the grace He has given me.
It was time to right the wrongs in my own thinking, allowing Him to change my mind. It was in Him, where I finally found the courage to carry on. It is in Him, where I, truly, had to find this peace.
To Fully Surrender
This world is changing, more and more every day. The Earth is crying out for all of us to, once and for all, listen. I believe, in many ways, the hourglass of time has finally reached its stay. Many are scrambling to “save the Earth,” when it’s been since the beginning of time we were given instruction on how to take care of it.
Only God can save us from ourselves and the detriment we have caused this planet. After all the years we’ve spent building up our own lives, living for ourselves, and in doing what we want, or by what we think we’ve needed, we are seeing the consequences of it. We’ve sacrificed time with our loved ones, doing what makes us happy, neglecting the very souls He has given us to shepherd.
God wants us to want Him so much that nothing on this earth can ever separate us from Him again. It’s been in this spiritual death that I do finally see this truth. And it’s only in physical death, will I ever fully know it.
Luke 9:23-24, “And he said to them all, ‘If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: but whosoever will lose his life for my sake, the same shall save it’.”
Inspiration AM 1110
