Every now and then
there is a person – and perhaps you’ve experienced this personally – who is
sick and tired of being sick and tired.
Life, the way we’ve chosen to live it,
or the way it’s become, or because of the circumstances that have occurred, has
become impossible, hopeless, even not worth living. We may even look at our
lives as being full of nice possessions and good experiences and still feel
empty. Maybe, even after meeting all our goals, we still haven’t experienced the
feelings we long expected to. Possibly those dreams held for decades have been
dashed against the rocks of a reality we hate to reconcile but find we have to.
The old life has run its solemn
course. We honoured it the best we could.
The Christian life is the viable
alternative – even if you already call yourself Christian. This new life of
Christianity is a regenerated life or it’s nothing at all. It is everything the
former and nothing about the latter, but many people have genuinely tried it
and tasted no lasting difference.
There are at least five ways to come
to the precipice of a new life in your old body, mind and soul in order to gaze
into a new possibility:
1.
Acknowledge
this as your rock bottom experience; a God-appointed time to awaken from the slumber
of spiritual lethargy.
2.
Re-organise
life in keeping with biblical principles for living; arrange life in faith to
the promises of God’s Word. See that God is a promise-keeper.
3.
Throw
away every selfish pursuit, but arrange for wise sustenance of self.
There is a great difference between self-indulgence and rest.
4.
Chase after
an experience with God – to know what it feels like to enjoy his loving,
assuring and life-changing Presence.
5.
Engage
in helping others with no thought of return. Help others in secret. Take no credit
for doing nice things. Hide your blessings. Keep the best secrets. (Ensure that
whatever you do that no harm can come to anyone.)
***
A new life is one decision away. God turns to us in our turning
to him. The old life is no waste from the perspective of a new life, because
the new life has all its meaning from the perspective of the old life. Jesus is
making all things new; choice is all that stands between old and new.
© 2014 S. J. Wickham.
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