In II Corinthians 5:17 it says, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come.” If Jesus dwells within you, you have been born again…a spiritual rebirth of a brand new person. But we humans like to return to the comfortable and easy things of the past rather than step forward into activities that are new, strange…and scary. As a Believer, you can’t go back to your old person, for he or she doesn’t exist anymore. You can only move forward…for the plan and purpose of God is to make you into something you’ve never been before.
Author: kezha1
A Christian mother, grandmother, and retired nurse living in Illinois. Called into a ministry of encouraging others to find their ultimate plan and purpose in life through Christ.
In Christ Jesus…You are complete in Jesus Christ.
Many of us walk around with gaping holes in our heart…holes caused from personal loss, trauma, or at the hands of someone else. We frantically search for things to fill these holes, but find nothing that lasts or gives us peace of mind. Jesus Christ is the only person or thing that can make your heart whole again. For in Him, you are made perfectly complete…lacking nothing… able to fully realize who you are in Christ.
In Christ Jesus…You are redeemed and forgiven.
Forgiveness. For some that’s a hard word to accept. They feel as if they need to “do” something first in order to gain God’s pardon. But to be forgiven by the Lord has nothing to do with us…for it is solely based on God’s unmerited love and mercy… His redemptive power working to heal and make us whole again.
In Christ Jesus…You are a loved Child of God.
When you receive Jesus into your heart and believe that He died for your sins, you are adopted into the family of God. As Romans 8:16-17 states, “You have received the Spirit of sonship.” Regardless of whether you had both parents, only one parent, or no parents at all when you were growing up…you have been adopted into God’s family…and in doing so, have been chosen and legally named as a joint heir with Jesus.
Nehemiah 8:9 ” This day is sacred to the Lord your God. Do not mourn or weep. For all the people had been weeping as they listened to the Words of the Law.”
The Words of the Lord are powerful. They convict and lay bare the sin in our life and cause Godly sorrow. This Godly sorrow leads to brokenness and repentance. For every time we listen to the Word being spoken, it’s an opportunity for the Lord to change us.
Nehemiah 8:2-3 ” So on the first day of the seventh month Ezra the priest brought the Law before the assembly, which was made up of men and women and all who were able to understand. He read it aloud from daybreak till noon as he faced the square before the Water Gate in the presence of the men, women and others who could understand. “
The Israelites had gathered together and asked Ezra to read the Law. Many had never heard the reading of the Word, for they had been born and raised in Babylonian captivity. The Lord had been faithful in rebuilding the Temple in Jerusalem…He had miraculously aided them in rebuilding the crumbled walls…but now it was time to rebuild His people. The Lord is wanting to rebuild His people again…to reclaim, restore, and re-establish Believers for His glory. Now is the time for you to break off the chains of captivity and allow God to begin a new rebuilding project in you.
Romans 6:1-2 ” What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means! We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? “
You can’t have it both ways. When you say “Yes” to Jesus, the broken relationship between God and you is restored. But that doesn’t mean you can manipulate His unearned and unmerited favor to your advantage. That’s what we’d call cheap grace. It’s an attitude of entitlement and presumption that you’d rather beg forgiveness than ask permission.
Psalm 39:5 ” You have made my days a mere handbreadth; the span of my years is as nothing before You. Each man’s life is but a breath. “
Take a deep breath…inhale and exhale slowly. Without breath, you’re dead. Your life force is gone, your body shut down. This verse looks at the very fleeting nature of one’s existence. That life is but one breath away from dying…and that our life span is measured as a blink of the eye in the eternal scheme of things. Let us then determine that while we’re here on earth for such a short duration, our focus should be on what we can do to better the world, rather than just exist in it.
Mark 7: 20-23 ” He went on: ‘What comes out of a man is what makes him unclean. For from within, out of men’s hearts, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance, and folly. All these evils come from inside and make a man unclean.’ “
This all started when the Pharisees saw the Disciples eating food with unwashed hands and were offended. Jesus gave the crowd a quick Anatomy/Physiology lesson when He concluded that all food (whether clean or unclean) goes into a man’s stomach, not his heart. He then instructed the crowd by saying, “Nothing outside a man can make him unclean by going into him. Rather, it is what comes out of a man that makes him unclean.” (Mark 7:15) I’ve heard it said, if you shake a man, you’ll see what’s in his heart. For it’s deep within our heart that all wickedness abides.
Isaiah 25:1 ” O Lord, You are my God; I will exalt You and praise Your name, for in perfect faithfulness You have done marvelous things, things planned long ago.”
Elsewhere in Isaiah it says, “The Lord Almighty has sworn, ‘Surely, as I have planned, so it will be, and as I have purposed, so it will stand.’ ” Lord, I give You thanks and trust that everything, both big and small, that happens in my life has been prepared long ago. Each wonderful, miraculous, and extraordinary thing that has and will happen to me You have planned out far before I was even born. And I know you have much more for me to be doing, and I look with eager anticipation to the future and Your plans for me. And everyone said, Amen.
Safetypinlove 