Chattanooga Times Free Press

Let Jesus renew, revitalize your life

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Living on Purpose

The greatest life-changing story ever told is that Jesus died for you, which proves he loved you more than anything in the world. He knows your every thought and intention, listens to every word and sees every act and deed. He has never taken his eyes from you, nor has he ever been distracted or too busy to listen to your concerns.

More than anything, he wants us to stop living for ourselves and begin to live for him so that he can renew our mind and revitalize our life for his glory. Nothing is impossible with Jesus, and the most wonderful revelation that can be realized is that he desires to live inside of us and guide us in all our decisions. What dream or imaginatio­n could be higher than to know that God has opened the door for us to live with him now and forever? “And the Lord shall guide thee continuall­y, and satisfy thy soul in drought, and make fat thy bones: and thou shalt be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters fail not” (Isaiah 58:11).

When we subconscio­usly adopt negative ideas and attitudes, the enemy uses these as building materials to construct a despairing fortress within our mind to discourage and disengage us from Christ. If we choose to accept this negative direction, sadness and frustratio­n will lead us into even lower levels of depression and misery.

If you have experience­d these difficult places in the past and the Lord delivered you, you have an understand­ing of God’s grace and his compassion to leave the 99 and rescue the one.

Have you ever become so desperate for God’s presence that you have fallen across your bed and wept as your repentance released his floodgates of cleansing within your heart? The Lord is holy and the continual desire to acknowledg­e our desperate need for humility and brokenness is critical within our personal relationsh­ip with him. Developing a spiritual awareness of his presence will remind us that we will never have his peace until we deal with our issues. The longer we carry them, the heavier they become.

God uses clay to describe the human conscience. He explains how important it is for us to be pliable, as the potter cannot mold a vessel that is hard, dry and stubborn. Our Creator’s solution is to break the vessel, crush it to powder, add water and make it soft so that it can be reshaped and transforme­d into what he has envisioned us to be.

There is much symbolism in the miracle of being born again, but to make a long story short, the Bible says in 2 Corinthian­s 5:17, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.”

Within this process of spiritual transforma­tion is the opportunit­y to refuse or to embrace honesty and obedience. Meekness is not pity but rather comprehend­ing that a power much higher than our own desires to change us into his image. Yielding our will sounds simple, yet it is the most difficult path we will ever follow.

No matter the challenges you are facing today, God is with you every step of the way. Dale Carnegie is quoted as saying, “Most of the important things in the world have been accomplish­ed by people who have kept on trying when there seemed to be no hope at all.”

In times of doubt and fear, you can know that God has never forsaken you and never will. As you walk through trials that are a part of this temporary existence, you can trust without a doubt that his loving presence is surroundin­g you. In fact, he promises that he is watching over us and wants to comfort us with his mercy, which endures forever.

Deuteronom­y 31:8 declares, “And the Lord, he is the One who goes before you. He will be with you. He will not leave you nor forsake you; do not fear nor be dismayed.” If we have allowed Christ to purify our heart, our eyes are opened to see his truth, and this is the power that sets us free from sin and the dark negative influences that try to defeat us.

Learning to have confidence in the Lord and embracing the endless commitment of his love is a revelation of his unfailing covenant to be with us even to the end of the world.

 ?? Commentary ?? Dr. William F. Holland Jr.
Commentary Dr. William F. Holland Jr.
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GETTY IMAGES

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