Made New

It has been a while since I have posted a blog.  I guess you could say that I have been going through an intense season of growth.  If I were to lay it all out, it would probably take hours to describe all that God has been teaching me and growing in me.

Probably the greatest thing that He has taught me recently is the reality of history.  I have been through many things, felt many things, and struggled with many insecurities.  However, the truth is that history is history.  I am not bound by my past or even the past thought processes that determined how I live.  What it means to be redeemed is that truth replaces lies and victory overcomes the illusion of defeat.  I make choices every day that determine who I trust.  Every day I will choose to trust God.  This is the same God that sees my entire life:  my past, my present, and my future.  This is the same God who created me and knows the potential that He has placed inside.  This is the same God who can bring my heart out of hiding so that His light might shine for all to see.  I will choose to trust God all the days of my life.  I cannot be a part of making history unless I learn to leave what is history in the past.  I am who I am today because of God’s grace.  And His grace is enough.  I am free.

I have also been learning so much about love.  I have been learning that in order to truly love someone, I need to let my expectations of them go.  Every person has needs, and God has laid out His promises that He can and will meet those needs.  When every part of me is found in God, I am free to simply love those around me.  When every part of me is found in God, those around me are free to simply be loved.

In God, I have everything I need to live a life of complete wholeness in Him.  There is no illness, emotional or physical, that needs to distract from my complete devotion to the One I love.  If I am truly praying, “Let Your Kingdom come, Your will be done ON EARTH AS IT IS IN HEAVEN, then my expectation and desire to see wholeness all around me will allow God the open door to make it happen.  It is the child-like faith that says, “God desires wholeness for you and for me” that gives the Holy Spirit room to move.  And He does.  What I have seen happen through this trust is only the beginning.

In our team Bible Study the other day, we read a quote by Chuck Austin that stuck in all of our minds.  I wanted to share it with you today:

“I choose to be extraordinary—and I can because of God’s promise and by God’s power.

I seek the challenge of discipleship—not the ease of self-indulgence.

I do not wish to be a casual believer, content with a ticket to heaven, dulled by the world around me, and squeezed into its mold of values and lifestyle.

I refuse to barter pain for pleasure, growth for comfort.

I will not trade the certainty of God’s Word for the uncertainty of my emotions, God’s assurance to make me like His Son for the indulgence of my old nature, nor my liberty in Christ for my license to make my brother stumble.

My heritage is in a company of saints that faced seemingly unconquerable foes, knowing the cost of their commitment, nevertheless placed all their trust in Jesus Christ, and found Him to be completely trustworthy.

I relinquish my ‘rights’ to serve my own ego, and accept my Master’s invitation to join Him as a servant of others.

It is my right to boldly enter the throne room of God to obtain mercy and grace through the perfect sacrifice of His Son.

I boast not in personal accomplishment, but acknowledge that all my resources are in God’s Holy Spirit, Who dwells within me.  The raw material that God is molding is one forgiven sinner, saved by grace.

I hereby choose to believe that since God is for me no one can prevail against me; therefore I will seek first the Kingdom of God, and persistently press on to know the Lord.  I want to be found in Him, having a righteousness that comes from God and is by faith.

It is my hope that when my race is run...to have kept the faith, to make no boast for myself, but to hear the Lord say, ‘Well done, thou good and faithful servant.’”