SINGLE STRIDE AWAY!! A NEW START

From time to time, Christians feel iced up for the reason that they think that to pursue God best, they need to get back to an earlier, more spiritual version of themselves. But we can follow God from right where we are. In fact in life generally, no one can go back and make a brand new beginning. What we ought to do is start right where we are and make a brand new ending.

Many of us remember a time when we walked more closely with the Lord. 

We can even discover ourselves comfortably anesthetized in a state of lethargy, ostensibly unable to move forward because we’re permitting something in our past to hold us back.

It could be because of many reasons. It could be we displeased God. It could be we hurt someone or perhaps we committed deliberate sin. Perhaps we’re struggling to forgive someone who hurt us. Possibly we’re mad with/about someone or something. “And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh” Ezekiel 36:26.

More often, deliberately or subconsciously, we leave ourselves to the thought that our lives are in all probability not what they were sought to be and it’s all Plan B from here. How do you have hope in Plan B?

A better question would be: How do you pursue God when life doesn’t work out precisely as you had planned? What do you do following a letdown that was your own responsibility or a bolt from the blue that was out of your control?

Perhaps something occurred and you can’t disengage yourself from it and you’re at all times thinking about it. Remember, “The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; His mercies never come to an end”, Lamentations 3:22-23.

The contemplation is for all time there, prowling just beneath the facade, ceaselessly grabbing a few of your hard drive space and depleting you of optimism and self-belief. The thought goes something like this: “There was a time when my faith was really strong and I walked with God, but I’m just not there anymore. I could never get back there. I’ve tried to get back to that point but I just can’t.”

You don’t have to. Christ is enthusiastic to start all over again in you and with you from wherever you are right now. You’re one stride away from give in, one step away from approaching home. Isaiah 43:18-19 says “Remember not the former things, nor consider the things of old. Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.

If we were excellent enough to gratify God on our own, we would’ve never desired a Savior in the first place.

“Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus” Philippians 3:13-14.

The more we let God take us over, the more truly ourselves we become - because He made us. He invented us. He invented all the different people that you and I were intended to be. . .It is when I turn to Christ, when I give up myself to His personality, that I first begin to have a real personality of my own.

The chief beauty about time is that you cannot waste it in advance. The next year, the next day, the next hour are lying ready for you, as perfect, as unspoiled, as if you had never wasted or misapplied a single moment in all your life. You can turn over a new leaf every hour if you choose.

Every story has an end, but in life every ending is a new beginning. Maybe it’s not always about trying to fix something broken. Maybe it’s about starting over and creating something better. Never be afraid to start over. You got covered by Christ already.  “So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous hand”, Isaiah 41:10

It's a chance to rebuild your life the way you wanted all along.

Permit God to do what He’s trying to do. He’s trying to tell you to let your past rest in his sea of forgetfulness. Don’t allow lies and guilt over “these things I’ve done, these places I’ve gone, and these things I’ve seen” to derail the most important relationship you could ever have. Jesus is so much bigger than your failure.

There is hope when God gives you a new beginning. God is doing a new thing (Isaiah 43:19). God will not look you over medals, degrees or diplomas, but for scars.