Where it Ends and Where it Begins: the Choice is Yours
We are now a couple weeks into the New Year and maybe we are having regrets about the year past. Maybe we are longing for a change or to be changed. C.S. Lewis wrote, “You can’t go back and change the beginning, but you can start where you are and change the ending.” I love this quote! Just as C.S Lewis spoke these words, so the apostle Paul spoke these words, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!” (2 Cor. 5:17, NIV)
The beautiful thing about our Savior is that He doesn’t expect perfect. He invites us to come in all our brokenness, just as we are, and meets us at our point of need. There is no need to go back and change the past. When we come to Him with a true and sincere heart in repentance and forgiveness of sins, we belong to Him. The old has died and the new has come! This does not give us permission to go on sinning when we know what we are doing is wrong. Christ calls us to higher places, which does not include a life of sin but to be holy as He is holy.
Of course, this isn’t anything that we do on our own. In verse 18 of the same chapter Paul also states, “All this is from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that God was reconciling the world to Himself in Christ, not counting men’s sins against them.” (2 Cor. 5:18-19)
Each one of us lives a certain lifestyle, we can start right where we are and change the ending. First off, we must recognize that we are all broken people and we all need a Savior. We cannot make it through this life without Him and make it to heaven. Christ has the power to forgive. Christ has the power to save. Christ has the power to redeem. Christ has the power to transform you into the person He created you to be. Secondly, we must truly accept Him as Lord and Savior. Not just over our lives but our heart also. Our heavenly Father desires to have a personal relationship with you. He created us for relationship. When we go to Genesis, we read about God walking with Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. He supplied all their needs and gave love as a true father would his child. Thirdly, we need to completely submit to God, so that He can do that transforming work within us. He does not force Himself on us, but only comes when we invite Him into our heart.
What is holding you back from accepting Jesus as your Lord and Savior? Is it fear? Matthew 10:28-31 NIV says “Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell. Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from the will of your Father. And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. So don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.” Perhaps you feel that you are too far gone to be saved? That is a lie straight from the pit of hell. John 3:17, NIV reads, “For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through Him.” Perhaps you feel that Jesus would not understand what you are going through because He hasn’t gone through what you are experiencing? Another lie from the pit of hell! Hebrews 4:14-16, NIV reads, “Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has gone through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet was without sin. Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.”
We have a Savior who is ready to save. We have a Savior who is ready to pour out His love upon you. Are you willing to open your heart and invite Him in? Are you willing to let Him lead you to a place of everlasting joy and salvation? The Bible is God’s story of love and redemption for His children. I want to invite you, this year, as we allow God to do a mighty work within us, to really get into the word of God. I want you to really see and understand and feel the love that God has for you! Allow Him to speak to you and fully receive what He has for you.
My prayer for you for 2023:
“I pray that out of glorious riches He may strengthen you with power through His Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.” (Ephesians 3:16-19, NIV)
©2023 Leslie Wittenmyer—All rights reserved