It's New Years Day 2013 and like everyone else I have taken time to look back in reflection and look ahead with planning and anticipation. The past year will not go down in my life's history as one of my favorites. Like any other year, it was filled with highs and lows, ups and downs. With my natural eyes, the lows were lower than normal and more painful and hard to get over. However, my spiritual eyes and my knowledge of the Truth (God's Word) tell me that God works all things for my good. Someday, I will walk side by side with Jesus and I will see clearly that His plan was perfect for me. For now, I must live by faith.
2012 was not just a difficult year for me. We experienced Hurricane Sandy and Sandy Hook and a myriad of other hardships. At times it may have seemed difficult to see God in the midst of these circumstances. I know I went through a dry season in my spiritual walk and I did not sense His Presence in the way that I typical do. So why all these hardships? Why can life be so tough? We need look no further than Genesis 1.
I got a new one year chronological Bible with readings for every day of the year in the order that the events occured. So this morning I read the Creation story as well as the story of the Fall of Man. See, when God created man, God had no intention of our lives being filled with hardship and turmoil and toil. God placed Adam and Eve in a beautiful garden that had all the food they could want. They didn't have to labor for it. God walked among them in the garden and spoke with them daily. They didn't struggle to hear a still small voice - they heard Him clearly. Oh they heard, but they didn't listen. God only gave them one rule. Just one. Do not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. We all know the story. The serpent deceived Eve. She convinced Adam. They ate the fruit... What really happened here? God had provided their every need. They knew no sorrow, no pain, they lacked nothing, they knew not the shame of sin (yet). All they had to do to maintain this carefree life was surrender and submit to God's design, God's plan. One rule - that was it. And it was a rule God gave to PROTECT them - not because He delighted in His authority. But Adam and Eve decided God didn't really know what He was doing. He couldn't possibly be right. Perhaps they even thought His ways were "old fashion" and times had changed and it was time for a new way. Well they got a new way. They were evicted from the Garden of Eden and made to toil for their food. With a list of consequences, sin had entered the world... and its been downhill ever since.
Before we get too upset with Adam and Eve, let's look in the mirror. We do exactly what they did ever time we choose our way over God's way. Each time we put ourselves in the drivers seat of our lives and have the Lord as a good luck charm in the trunk that we pull out in emergencies, we are committing the same sin that Adam and Eve did. By our actions we say: "God, we know better than you do how our lives should be run". So God's replies: "have it your way". 2012 was a picture of what "our way" looks like. Selfishness and self-centeredness gave birth to sin. Sin gave birth to sorrow, pain, loss, death.
Oh but thanks be to God that even when we have made a terrible mess, He does not leave us that way! His original intention in creating mankind is still His intention today. He desires an intimate relationship with each of us. Yes, the wages of sin is death and sin separates us from God. But God so loved us that He sent His son Jesus. Jesus left the perfection of heaven to come to this sin-stained world and be crucified. He took the punishment of our sins upon Himself. With His death He paid the price and with His resurrection He defeated sin and death and enabled us to not only have eternal life, but to have abundant life here on earth as we walk closely in relationship with our Savior. All we have to do is accept and receive that gift.
For me, I entered into a personal relationship with Jesus 24 years ago. My eternal life has been purchased with His blood and secured. However, my abundant life is a process and a daily choice. It amazes me that after 24 years, I still sometimes choose to do things my way. I still sometimes think I know what is best for me more than He does. I make decisions independently of Him, and then boy do I react when I don't like the way things have turned out.
I am so grateful that God is a God of New Beginnings. And you know what? It does not have to be a new year to have a new beginning. The Bible says His mercies are new every morning. He continually provides me with a clean slate and offers His love, His guidance, His wisdom, and His Presence to be with me each day. No, life will not be a bed of roses - not even in this new year. Sin will remain in this world until His Second Coming. But each day I have a choice. I can choose to think, act, and live independently and accept how that turns out, or I can choose to wake up, seek His face, seek His Will and surrender to it... and walk through this world hand in hand with my Creator, Savior, Father, and best friend, trusting that He will bring me through life's storms and accomplish His perfect will in my life. His ways do not always make sense. But both He and I have proven our track records. I like His better - and I am thankful for yet another new beginning to choose His Way once more.
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