Wednesday, January 1, 2014 -- Happy New Year--really???
Wednesday January 1, 2014
HAPPY NEW YEAR--REALLY??? Some of us woke up this morning with a huge hang-over because the party last night included a bit too much food and drink. Others of us have woken up to the fact that our lives are unmanageable and that we are powerless to heal the pain or deal with the addictive out-of-control behaviours we've been engaging in to try to find a little happiness.
Every ounce of pain we find in our heart and mind and body today matters to God. It matters so much that Jesus went through suffering and a cruel death on the cross in order to carry our pain away and give us new life. Whether the pain has been there a lifetime or we've only just become aware of it, God already has a plan in place to bring healing to us. God knew us before we were even born and His desire is to remove every painful memory from our mind and soul so we can live at ease in our life with Him and others. This condition of peaceful living is available to every single person in full measure right here, right now. What do we need to do to experience it? One issue, one thought, one memory at a time we TURN FROM fear, anger, resentment, or painful wound and TURN TO the gentle healing and direction of Jesus Christ. How do we manage that? God's word gives us dependable direction.
Christ’s love controls us. We are sure that one person died for everyone. And so everyone died. Christ died for everyone. He died so that those who live should not live for themselves anymore. They should live for Christ. He died for them and was raised again. Anyone who believes in Christ is a new creation. The old is gone! The new has come! Christ didn’t have any sin. But God made him become sin for us. So we can be made right with God because of what Christ has done for us. (2 Corinthians 5:14-15,17, 21 NIRV)
Too many of us feel like we can only hope for a measure of joy and peace at some point way down the line when we get all our "issues sorted out." Not true. The complete healing and fulfillment of what our heart needs is available to you and me today. Inviting Jesus Christ to come into our lives and make us right with God is the first step. Receiving the love, forgiveness, and acceptance of God is the protection and strength we need to go forward into a new year and a new life. As we walk forward, hand-in-hand with God, we can ask Him to reveal to us how we are living disconnected from His kindness and healing. We can then change our attitude and ways for His attitude and ways and come back into the overwhelming goodness and grace He is pouring out on us. God knows us and the best road forward for us.
We may choose to enter treatment centers and come to meetings in order to learn new information about the goodness of this God we never knew. We can then take every opportunity to welcome the kindness of God into any pain we are currently experiencing. We need to study the truth of God’s word so we can come to see and know all the possibilities we never knew existed. Do many of God’s promises seem too good to be true? Often! However, every time we connect our life with God’s promises, we will come to experience safe and dependable goodness coming alive in us. Since ancient times no one has heard, no ear has perceived, no eye has seen any God besides you, who acts on behalf of those who wait for him. (Isaiah 64:4 NIV)
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