Giving us His love

 

      When did you reach the end of your rope? When did it seem like the storms in your life would never end? Where did the friends, that you knew for a life time, go? When there was nowhere else to turn, what did you do or think?

          That happened to me. And I am sure that for you, as it was for me, it was a scary time. A time when all there seemed to be was darkness and pain. I was there myself. I felt alone because I had let down those friends, along with my family. The walls that I had surrounded myself with seemed to be insurmountable. But in all the pain and heartache there was a voice. And I was amazed at just how loving and sweet it sounded. In that moment I knew just how much Jesus cared for me and most importantly just how much He loved me.

          He came to me in all my brokenness. He waded through all my sins to hold me and heal my wounds. It is not ironic that just His voice broke through the stone that encased my heart. Now that my heart was one of flesh and not stone the Holy Spirit was able to come in, changing me forever. Thus began a transformation in my life, one that was being led by Jesus Christ.

          When He came in the darkness that I had been struggling in was gone, replaced by His glorious light. Every sin was erased, completely forgotten. I started to feel a peace like never before. The yoke of the world I had been following was lifted from my shoulders and replaced by His yoke. I tell you it was so light, almost like it wasn’t there. Now there have been times when I did get heavy, but those were the times when my walk started to veer off from His path, making my walk more difficult, something that Jesus did not want from me. But it was never a hard pull or quick swat with a cord. It was a gentle reminder, a reminder of what he had done for me on the cross. It was the tear that fell from His eyes that I saw. Those are the things that brought me back time and time and time again.

          It was my surroundings, a place that I did not want to be in, but knew it was Christ who had planned all along to have me there. A place to learn and begin to reflect on who He is and what He did. A place to slow down and truly focus on Him and His ways for my life. To begin to fully understand just how much He loves not only me but the world. It was a place where my Savior could begin to change my head and heart, so as to live His way. To show me that through it all He never left me nor forsook me. For the first time I was able to live a life of peace and have the strength in order to follow Him through all my storms, knowing that the other side would be better than the side I left.

          So here I am today. I still struggle, and have times of sin. But I have the head and heart knowledge that Christ loves me no matter what. That His blood covers all sins, forever, separating them from me. That His love never fails.

          If your life seems out of control. If you live in constant darkness. If the storms of your life never seem to fade let alone go away, go to Him. He is not concerned with your past, just your heart. Christ is not a tyrant, ruling with an iron fist. He is a loving Father who wishes for you to accept Him as your Savior. See you are not a savior, you cannot save anyone, even yourselves. Good works will not do it. So trying to help others to make yourself look good to God is not the right plan. Humbling your heart, repenting, asking for forgiveness. Opening up yourself in order to let Him in is the way to go.

Dead Now Alive

 

Ephesians 2: 4,5: 4) “But because of his great love for us, God who is rich in mercy, 5) made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions.”

          How was my life before I truly knew Christ? Oh, I knew of Him, but didn’t truly know Him. And my life reflected that because I walked in the darkness of my sinful life. So even through that Jesus continued to call out lovingly to me back to Him, my only desire was to go down the path of self, gaining all I could for me. Since my fall I have come to learn that His only desire was for me to fully walk with Him, enjoying the joy, peace and love that CAN ONLY BE FOUND IN HIM!! “How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God!! And that is who we are!! The reason the world does not know us in that it did not know him.” 1 John 3:5 (AB). “He saved us, not because of any works of righteousness that we had done, but because of His own pity and mercy, by [the] cleansing [bath] of the new birth (regeneration) and renewing of the Holy Spirit.” Titus 3:5 (AB).

          So through my circumstances I humbly came to Christ, asking for forgiveness, and I laid my life at His feet. I gave up control to Him allowing Him to pour the Holy Spirit into my heart. When I accepted Christ as my personal Savior I experienced a rebirth, becoming alive in Christ. My spirit, then, truly set free so I knew right then that what I had learned about Christ was true He freed my heart from the grip of sin. He opened my eyes in order that I could walk in the light of His glory, clearly seeing the way, no longer stumbling, tripping and falling under the weight of unforgiving sins that I was carrying. “then we will not turn away from you; revive us, and we will call on your name.” Psalm 80:18 (NIV). “According to Your steadfast love, give life to me; then I will keep the testimony of Your mouth [hearing, loving, and obeying it]. Psalm 119:88 (AB).

          I also, then, truly begin to grasp the understanding of how much God does love me. I had always heard, “He sent His Only Son,” but my heart never allowed it in because of my sinful nature. I walked the path of self-reliance, self-preservation. Even when I read the word, my blindness, because of my sinful life, did not allow its power to enter into my heart. I failed to comprehend that my frustrations in life were the results of the absence of Christ in my heart. I was walking along through life dead leading a lifeless existence because of my sinful life. Circumstances in my life broke me to the point that I finally heard Christ calling my name. My blindness was taken so that the power of the words I finally and truly read entered into my heart. Christ swept my heart clean of my sins and His love for me began to overflow out of me spilling into the lives of family and friends. “When you were dead in your sins and in the circumcision of you sinful nature, God made you alive with Christ, He forgave us all our sins.” Colossians 2:13 (NIV). “For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men so that, having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life.” Titus 2:11 & 3:7 (NIV).