Dear Friends,
Take time to read this and check your life. This has
helped me a lot to hope for better days ahead, in the
Lord.
Your's in Christ Jesus,
Biji James,
Bangalore
Life Changing Checkpoints
"Search me, O God, and know my heart; try me and know
my anxious thoughts;
and see if there be any hurtful way in me, and lead
me
in the everlasting way."
Psalm 139:23-24
When you're thinking about the changing times and
the calendar pages that seem to turn too eagerly,
what
boggles your mind the most? Is it how old you're
getting? How big the kids have grown? Or is it what
God is doing in your life?
As we settle into the new millennium, we have to
guard against settling into complacency. The only way
to do that is to ask ourselves a scary question. And
we have to ask it repeatedly. How is knowing Jesus
Christ changing my life?
Before you can reach out to others in the name of
love, you have to grow in your understanding of love.
Before you can devote more energy to sharing the
life-changing message of Christ with someone else,
you
have to make sure your life is being changed by His
message of hope, healing, and forgiveness.
Our lives shouldn't just contrast the lives we
led
before coming to know the Lord. They should be
different from the lives we led last year and the
year
before that. As we grow, we change. But the issue is:
Are we growing?
Last month, many of us made the same New Year's
resolutions we've made in years past. But have we
ever
questioned ourselves why?
Why is it that we seem to resolve over and over
again to read our Bible more, take better care of our
health, or start spending more time with our families
than we do at work? Maybe it's because we are trying
to change the outward appearance of our lives without
asking Jesus Christ to change us inside.
If we're honest about wanting to change areas we
know God wants to overhaul, we must all come to the
same conclusion: I can't do it. It's a humbling thing
to admit: We cannot change ourselves. No amount of
programs, books, or Bible studies are going to do the
work in our hearts than only Jesus Christ can do.
So where does that leave us? Exactly where God
wants us.
When we're ready to let go of our ways and our
coping mechanisms, we see that it's impossible to
inflict "change" on ourselves or on anyone else apart
from the supernatural work of God. Often, it's
letting
go that proves more difficult than running forward.
So if you're serious about experiencing real
inward change this year, take a few minutes to stop.
Ask God to reveal to you the ways He wants to work in
your life.
Ask Him to show you the areas He wants to change, and
the areas He has already changed.
A spiritual checkpoint isn't something we do at
the beginning of the year and then wait until we hear
the chorus of "Aude Lang Syne" before resuming again.
It's something we can do daily, and weekly, to give
up
control and let the Lord change in us what we cannot.
When you discover God's vision for how He wants
to
impart new habits and views to you . . .
Keep praying.
Ask Him to use specific experiences, Scripture, and
people to change the way you view Him, the way you
view obedience, and the way you view yourself and
others.
It's after we're in the habit of asking ourselves
the first scary question that we can begin asking
ourselves the second one: How are the changes of
Jesus
Christ in my life affecting the lives of others?
Maybe God has birthed in you a vision to love
others by serving them. Maybe He has given you an
idea
for a particular ministry in your church, or even a
personal ministry such as befriending the neighbor no
one else likes.
Whatever the method, God most certainly will call
you to live radically. Some will misunderstand;
others
will discourage you. Still there will be some who get
it: God is in the business of change.
That change will come about as the body of Christ
lets Christ into the places we've not dared opened
before. When we are willing as individuals and as a
corporate body to invite the Lord's revelation into
the darkest places of our lives, His light will be
able to shine brightly through us to a world that
desperately looks in all the wrong places for
transformation.
The amazing thing about conducting spiritual
checkpoints in your life is that it's nearly
impossible for them not to have an impact on someone
else's life too.
Copyright © 2002 IN TOUCH MINISTRIES. All rights
reserved.
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