See, I am doing a new thing!
Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? Isaiah 43:19 NIV
Remember that whisper I heard, “Finish that Book?” I said God breathed new life into it that next morning as I looked through my table of contents. What I found was this amazing realization! The chapters in the book ran in a cycle. A particular cycle that repeated two times through. Within each storyline I saw the same cycle–almost mini-cycles within the larger cycle:
Now this is where it changed. The front end of my story had a bounce back
What changed was what I like to call “The Jesus Factor.” When Jesus came into the picture, my consequence then led to Restoration and New life!
On page 6 in The Path to Surrender, Finding Your Way Back to the Flock, I speak about this cycle and each chapter I outline what portion of the cycle I saw myself in as I reflected back. It gave me a structure and format and vision for the book in an entirely new way that I had never envisioned before. It set up a framework to help others inventory their own life and situation and almost predict what is coming next in order to guide choices and decisions!
Each new “thing” that happens in our life is a chance to begin again. What we choose to do with that is the important part. Will we choose to go at it our own way and separate from God, heading down the perilous path full of obstacles? OR, will we let Him lead that path? Well, when I started actually letting Him lead, I didn’t avoid obstacles! Darn! The change was, I wasn’t causing all the obstacles anymore!! He was letting me see them and help Him move them through prayer, obedience, acts of Faith! It took time, hard work, and digging deep, but the NEW LIFE would come!
A little further in my walk now, God sends me in to walk these cycles with others and I feel the weight of sin and consequences that aren’t even my own doing. God has been teaching me how to be a soldier and go back into the world and get busy cleaning up “sin” so fewer consequences and more NEW LIFE springs forth.
Will you join me?
Get started by considering the stage of the cycle you are in now? Reflect on where you have been and where you are headed next. No matter where you are, the cycle will keep rolling, so “sprinkle a little Jesus” on that sin and let’s make New Life!
P.S. The picture I share today is a comparison. The image on the left is me living in the consequences of my sins, the time I was forging my own path and falling short. The image on the right is when I “sprinkled a little Jesus” in my life and He made ME new! I was a new creation.
**Note–these images were taken just a few years apart. I was the same weight. I even had make-up on in the left image and none in the right. The proof is there. My eyes were opened, my smile was wide, and the light in me was bursting out!
With so much love,
Julie
The Path to Surrender, Finding Your Way Back to the Flock: https://a.co/d/8cyebcW
Itís hard to come by educated people about this subject, but you seem like you know what youíre talking about! Thanks
Glad you visited!