Every single, solitary time I sit to write, when faced by my computer screen, I am made uneasy by the blank page that stares back at me.
Let my words be Yours and not my own, is my prayer when I write. Because if they will touch someone's heart, if they will make a difference and if they will help someone - they won't be of me. They will be of Him.
Much like a clean piece of paper a new year has started. Say hello to 2014! People are energized and ready to start a new. Before I became a Christian, a new year always promised a clean slate. Time to lose weight. Time to do better at my job. Purchase the newest and best self help books. But, most importantly I would stop doing all the bad things I had been doing and replace them with the good. This would be the year to get my life together. I would do well for a few weeks or so and then slowly the bad things would creep back in. Spring would pass, summer would arrive and I would start to tell myself...next year....that will be the year.
In my head, I knew right from wrong and good from bad. But, my head wasn't the problem, the problem was my heart. When we love something that we are doing, we tend to find ways to rationalize our behavior and why it's ok that we are doing it. So, that we can keep doing it.
One last time... I deserve it... They will never find out... I work so hard... They don't appreciate me...
What are some of the things you tell yourself?
Over the years God brought different people into my life that graciously and boldly talked to me about Jesus. At the time I would politely smile, think they were super nice, appreciate their efforts, and think they were a little nutty. But, they took the time to plant seeds in my heart that God, in His own perfect timing would grow. One day at a women's conference, God brought to my knees by the reality that I had a major problem in my heart and there was absolutely NOTHING I could do to fix it.
Ezekiel 36:26
"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."
I went through life before knowing that Jesus died on the cross for my sins, but I never knew Him. I was hit with the reality that while I may be a "good" person by the world standards, God's standards are much different. God's law is the ten commandments, and when I put myself up against the ten commandments, I had broken every single one. I had broken God's law and just like in our court system where there are consequences, a penalty must be paid for my sins. With His blood, Jesus paid the penalty for our sins on the cross. To receive this grace all you have to do is repent, turn from your sin and put your trust in Jesus Christ as your Savior. He will give you a new heart with new desires.
2 Corinthians 5:17
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.
Pastor Gib at my church, Living Hope, always says, "Jesus came and lived the life we were supposed to live, died the death we deserved to die, so that God could treat us as if we had lived Jesus' life."
2 Corinthians 5:21
For our sake He made Him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.
That's how much God loves us! He sent His only Son to die on the cross for us! Jesus loves us so much that He laid down His life for us! This year instead of looking inside at yourself to make the needed changes in your life, look to the cross. Seek Christ, He promises you will find Him.
Jeremiah 29:12-13
For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you. You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart.
In Christ,
Jennifer
