Happy New Year Ladies and Gents!
We all hear people talk about "New Year, New Me" or the infamous "what are your New Year's resolutions?" Even turn on the TV and every other commercial is about weight loss, diet and exercise. We all want to start out the year right, yet somehow, by week 2, we start to fall back into our old ways. By February we have forgot what a New Year's resolution is! Why is that? We start out with great intensions yet always fall short. Could it be that we become too busy, lazy, or make goals that are unattainable. Maybe we create these lists because it is the “right and socially appropriate thing to do” but don’t actually believe we need to change anything.
The first problem to tackle is to answer these questions: Why am I creating this resolution? Do I actually see that I need to change something in my life or am I doing this to look like I am ambitious, dedicated, driven, etc.? In order to actually see ourselves changing and growing, we need to see that we personally need to change. If you do not see a problem within yourself, then what makes you think that you will be able to grow and change? What even is there to change?!
Being a Christian and believing you don’t have anything to change is basically telling God that you don’t really need Him and we are too holy.
1 John 1:8,10 says, “If we claim we have not sinned, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us… If we claim we have not sinned, we make Him a liar and His word is not in us”.
We can all admit when we have done some wrong, yet majority of us don’t want to admit it that we are broken and messed up. It is like our parents telling us clean our room. What we do instead is shove everything under the bed. Though the room may have a clean appearance, the mess is still in the room, just hidden. We don’t want to actually deal with the mess so we just put it out of sight. Over time, that mess will pile up (may sometimes smell) and then there will be no more room under your bed. It’ll either spill out or you will just find another place to hide it. Eventually your parents find the mess, then you really have to clean up your room, you get in trouble, etc. Basically there are a plethora of events that could have been avoided if you had just dealt with the mess the first time around.
It is the same with our own lives. We are messed up people yet never want to believe there is any mess in our life. We continue to shove our mess under the bed in hopes no one else sees how messed up we are and so we don’t see that constant reminder of how mess up we are! We cover it up through our appearance, academics, money, worldly success or the Great Wall of China over our heart.Then we continue on in our lives, lying to ourselves and to God that we and messed up and in need help! If we really want to change, we have to ADMIT that we have problems and issues but most importantly that we are BROKEN and in need of a savior.
The most difficult question I have ever asked God was “If He can show myself to me?” I had to first pray for God to soften my heart so I could WANT to ask Him to show myself! Once my heart was soften, I wanted God to place a mirror in my face so I could see what I really looked like and what needed to be fixed. It was tough because no one wants to see how they REALLY look. We never want to think that we are bad people or do bad things. The reality is, we still aren’t bad people, however, we still sin and sin against other people and sin against God. I did become fearful of what God was going to show me. I was afraid that it was too many issues and there was no changing from there. I was afraid of how I have treated people. I was really afraid of how I treated God and if He loved me less because of it. I knew, however, that in order to overcome the issues in my life, I had to ask the one who sees me at every waking moment, what is it that I do that is not glorifying to You? I didn’t want to continue to sin against God and BE OK with sinning against Him. What I learned is I shouldn't be afraid because God loves and has always loved me and how His love NEVER changes! He has always been wanting to help me clean up my mess, but I never asked for the help. It is still a process but this mess is not overwhelming anymore because I know God is right here cleaning it with me and doing most of the cleaning! I just had to admit AND believe that I was broken and in need of His saving.
You CAN change through the Holy Spirit, ONLY if you see that you have issues and admit to Him that you are broken and in need of His help. In 1 Corinthians 6:9-10, there is a list of people who will not inherit the kingdom of God. If we look at that list, we can probably find our name in there. Yet in verse 11 it states, “And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God”. Through Jesus, we can be saved from our mess! He loves us so much, that He will take the time to help us sort through that pile that we have pushed under the bed.
Our hearts have become hardened to our own mess. While our hearts continue to harden, God’s continues to break for us. We are destroying our lives believing we don’t have anything that needs to be changed and we are destroying our relationship with God! Admitting you are broken is telling God that you need Him, you want to be changed, and HE is the only thing that can change you. It is saying that your heart is in need of healing and that you want to live how He has created you to be! God says, “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.” – Ezekiel 36:26.
I pray for God to humble us and soften our hearts so we are able to see what we look like. Once He does show us, we must repent of those sins and ask Him to help us overcome our issues. He really really loves you and wants you to see yourself as how He created you to be. Don’t get discouraged at what you see in your life! He wants you to change and become a Christian. He longs to help you and heal you, but you have to see you need help and healing first. So let’s make our first New Year’s resolution be for God to show us what we look like! Who’s with me?! Lol
I pray you all have a blessed week!
Part 2 is coming soon!!!