Inspiration & Worship
Starting Fresh!
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new year often brings thoughts of making a new start in life. Thankfully, God invites us to do that at any time, and urges us to go forward regardless of past failures and disappointments. Scripture teaches that God doesn’t want Christians to wallow in regret and guilt. Yes, we must acknowledge our sins and correct our bad behavior, but past sins shouldn’t hold us back from a better future. To wallow in guilt is to reject the grace and mercy hard won for us by Jesus Christ. It also means focusing on the flesh rather than the spirit. Few people have experiened more regret than Paul the apostle. Before his conversion to Christianity, he dedicated himself to persecuting Christians, as he details in Acts 22. Paul understood the vital importance of looking forward. “… But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me …” he writes in Philippians 3:13-15. “All of us who are mature should take such a view of things.” When we’re caught up in our own shame, we turn inward. We distance ourselves from God and try to hide from him, just as Adam and Eve tried to hide from God in the garden because of their shame. (Genesis 3:8.) When we accept His mercy, we’re better able to listen to Him and therefore to love others. “Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage,” Paul admonishes the Christians of Galatia, (Galatians 5:1, KJV.) In Romans 8:1 (NIV) he cautions against being re-enslaved by sin. “Those who live according to the sinful nature have their minds set on what that nature desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires.” A new year is a great time to “get right with God” in our hearts and move forward in the kind of absolute freedom only He gives us. And that helps us to help others and to carry out God’s will. When we stand boldly before the throne of grace, our hearts are free to say, as Isaiah did, “Here I am, Lord, send -- Janine Pumilia me!” ❚ 12
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