Tag Archives: New Life In Christ

A PRAYER FOR LEAVING THE PAST BEHIND

Following Christ with a singleness of heart takes tremendous courage. It means we need to leave behind everything that is not part of God’s plan for us. It’s tempting to live life focused on the past or worry about what lies ahead in the future.

I believe it’s necessary to completely leave the past behind to experience God’s best for our lives. The ones who are not lukewarm in their pursuit of Christ are moving at a rapid pace toward God’s divine plans.

Prayer is our most powerful spiritual tool to open up HEAVEN’S floodgates. We experience God’s glory when we are on our knees often, in a position of submission, willing to let the Lord carry out His plans for our lives. Otherwise, we will be stagnant and continue to wallow in the muck that has held us back in the past. Christ is calling us to bravely follow Him no matter what the cost might be. He is calling us to move forward and He desires for us to take up our cross of surrender daily (Matthew 16:24) and leave the past behind forever.

The Lord whispered words to my heart during a time I was struggling to let go of the past, and He encouraged me to stay focused on what is eternal.

Be still and quiet every day so that you can hear My voice. I will give you what your soul is yearning for if you keep focused on Me. Don’t look back to the past. Don’t worry about tomorrow. Simply walk with Me and live in the present moment. Savor what I am giving you in the present and enjoy every single breath I am giving you.

With a fierce determination to stay on God’s path, I have been seeking the Lord for His purposes for my life. In the process of seeking Him with all my heart, He has helped me to completely leave my past behind. As I chose to let go of the things that were holding me back, it immediately set things in motion for the new beginnings that God wanted to release in my life.

Because of Christ’s gift of the cross, we are free to live in victory every moment of every day. As we turn away from sin and follow Christ with total commitment, we will continue to live victoriously. We only need Christ and His love. It’s when we yield every part of our hearts and allow Christ’s love to work through us that we easily leave the past behind.

Beloved Jesus,

Thank You for being the greatest friend and faithful shepherd to us. Thank You for loving us perfectly. I ask You to be with the ones who are struggling to leave the things of the past behind them.

I ask You to raise up a generation that follows You with a singleness of heart and lives with integrity. Give them a new sense of courage and hope for the future. Help the children and younger generations to trust You and follow You where You are leading them.

Heal every hurt from the past and take away every traumatic memory from those who have been mistreated. Help them to walk in total forgiveness and let go of the people who are not meant to be a part of their lives. Let them be willing to leave the places You’re calling them away from and let them move toward the new beginnings You have planned for their lives. I ask You to breathe life and strength into their souls as they trust You to renew their spirits. I pray in Your name, Christ. Amen.

 

Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead. Philippians 3:13

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

 This post includes a portion of  an article I wrote in 2008.

CHOOSING TO WALK IN THE LIGHT

Walking in the Light

With a forlorn tone in my voice, I told my mother, “Nobody understands.” I was venting to my mom about how hard things were in my life at the time. My mom in her wise and loving way, said, “You’re right, nobody does understand, and they never will. Jesus understands though. And He is the only One who will ever be able to fully understand what you’re feeling and what you’re going through.”

It was years ago that my mom’s words helped to jolt me out of my big pity party. It was a defining moment for me that helped to change the course of my thinking. Mama’s words were etched in my heart permanently as a reminder of how Jesus is the only One who can satisfy the longings of the human soul.

During the darkest season of my life, in the 90s, I made a choice to walk away from the things and thoughts that were keeping me from living and walking in the light.

Feeling sorry for myself was a snare in my life that was robbing me of the abundance I was longing for. Self-pity is such a destructive, life-stealing, ugly force that steals beautiful moments of abundant living from anybody who falls prey to it.

As we read in John 16: 33, Jesus said, “In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.”

When we embrace the fact that Jesus can help us overcome anything and make a conscious decision to focus on His love and not on our difficult situations, then amazingly our problems begin getting solved in the most supernatural ways. That’s exactly what happened in my life.

I was in a pit in 1997, and it was a living hell for me. After my family and my special friend, Bonnie, encouraged me to keep seeking the Lord, I took a hundred and eighty degree turn from my self-destructive thought patterns and chose to pray boldly for help from God. On the days I could barely get out of bed, I would focus on God by reading the Bible. I wrote Bible verses on index cards and hung them in various places so that I would stay focused on the truth of God’s words. And I would turn on my Larnelle Harris C.D. and listen to his song, “I Choose Joy” over and over and over and over until joy came bursting out of my heart.

Once I began taking every thought captive and meditating on the truths of the Bible, then my spirit felt renewed, I began living in peace, and miracles began coming forth.

Transformation begins with us turning away from negativity and taking a step toward Christ. God doesn’t just snatch us out of the darkness. He says if we seek Him with all our hearts, then we will find Him (Jeremiah 29:13).

Are you feeling the darkness closing in on you? If so, I pray that you will begin today to seek God with every fiber of your being. As you are steadfast in your pursuit of Christ, the light will overcome the darkness in your life.

Be encouraged. Jesus has overcome the world!

“This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.  If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.” 1 John 1:5-7 (ESV)

 

New Life

 

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The beauty in nature speaks to my soul deeply. The day lilies are in full bloom in my yard, and they are stunning.  I spent some time this afternoon tending to my flowers. While pulling the dead blooms off, I began pondering how God is so good at removing the splinters in my heartHe takes away those things that deaden my spirit.

I could hear His soft words in my heart.

“Your heart comes more alive each time you allow me to purify it. In Me, You are able to grow more beautiful. Come to Me and allow My healing balm to give you new life every day.”

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During the times I’ve had hurt hidden deep inside, God has come and healed me as I released it to Him. Unresolved hurt left untended robs my spirit of joy and peace. Years ago, I discovered that as I allow the Lord to tend to my heart the way I tend to my yard, that He’ll keep it pure.

How about you? Have you felt God’s healing balm working on your heart lately? Jesus is the One who heals broken hearts. When my heart was hurting, I bowed down before Him and prayed, Lord, please heal my hurt; please take away this ache in my soul and fill me with Your peace. He answered the cries of my heart and replaced my pain with His beauty.

Trying to soothe hurts with alcohol, with drugs, busyness, or any other thing doesn’t work. It might feel a little better temporarily. But the hurt is still there. It’s only a temporary fix. Jesus offers a healing balm that brings abundant new life that’s beautiful and eternal.

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This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun.” 2 Corinthians 5:17 (NLT)

“He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds.” Psalm 147:3 (ESV)

Photography Credit: Michael von Borstel