Have you ever wanted to start something all over? I have. Have you ever done something that you wished that you had not? I have. Have you ever started down one path and decides that you were going the wrong way? I have. What did you do in these situations? Did you go back to the beginning and restart? Did you just restart from where you were and moved forward from there? Let us see what I have learned about restarting.
The most important thing that I have learned in my life is that I needed to restart it. I needed to restart it because I was a sinner and was therefore dead. I needed to be born again. In John 3:3-7, “Jesus answered him, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.’ Nicodemus said to him, ‘How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?’ Jesus answered, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, “You must be born again.”’” The question I needed to face then was how do I become born again.
When I became born again, I found also that I had a new identity. 2 Corinthians 5:17 affirms it, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.” (ESV) I have found this to be an ongoing process in my life. As I age in mature and give myself up to God as a living sacrifice and do not allow myself to be conformed to the world by renewing my mind that my life is constantly restarting. I am being changed in to the man God wants me to be rather then what my fleshly self-wanted to be.
I have found also that I must understand that I am a new creation and that the old things have passed away. I no longer have to dwell in my past. I have a new future filled with hope. A future of eternal life with God.
I have found often times that I want to live by my feelings. How about you? But I am continually learning that my feelings are fickle. They come a go for what seems to be no logical reason. My life will go up and down when I trust in my feelings. I have learned that I cannot trust my feelings but I can trust God’s Word. Psalms 119:160 says, “The sum of Your word is truth, And every one of Your righteous ordinances is everlasting.” (ESV) I also know that when I received Christ as my Lord and Savior, I also received the Holy Spirit who Jesus refers to in John 16:13 this way, “When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come.” (ESV) I therefore have come to the conclusion that I can no longer trust in my feeling but I must trust in the truth. That is the real truth that is found in God’s Word and in the Holy Spirit who dwells within me.
I have also found that my new life needed to have new people who influence me. I need to find men of God who could teach, encourage, admonish, and help me grow in my relationship with Christ. 1 Corinthians 15:33 says, “Do not be deceived: ‘Bad company ruins good morals.”’ (ESV) By changing who are my influencers my life is restarted.
I also must learn to abide in Jesus. This too is an ongoing effort lead by the Holy Spirit. Jesus said, “I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.” (ESV) I find that to abide in Christ I must spend time in The Holy Bible, spend time in prayer with Him, and spend time with fellow believers in worship, prayer, fellowship and learning. It is these things that give me my restart. It is these things that bring me hope.
Join me in restarting our lives daily as Jesus said, “And he said to all, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.” Luke 9:23 (ESV) Living confidently that you can continually restart your life no matter your failures or your trials because you too are a new creation and old things (our pasts) have passed away. It is this that brings hope. Hope is part of the gifts that God gives you when accept Jesus. Understanding that the hope you have is because of the death of Jesus Christ on the cross satisfying the penalty for my sins and yours as well. It satisfies all my sins from the past, in the present and in the future. My penalty and yours was satisfied on the cross by the death of Jesus, God’s greatest act of love and wrath, who became sin for me and you. It was also God’s greatest act of faithfulness because “God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” Romans 5:8 (ESV) Because wisdom shows us, we need to believe in Jesus. I hope that you join me in helping others to choose Jesus.
If you have not read my previous blogs, you can find them here.
You can find my book, Hope Amid Hopelessness: Our Abba Father Provides a Way Through Mental Illness here.
eBook or Audiobook versions can be found at Westbow Press or Christianbook.com at Amazon or Google
