“Now, if anyone is enfolded into Christ, he has become an entirely new person. All that is related to the old order has vanished. Behold, everything is fresh and new.” 2 Corinthians 5:17 TPT

I love belonging to Jesus! My life has meaning because He brought His meaning into it. Because of the bible I know that if I had a difficult day struggling with my flesh, I can repent, repair things with Him and others and … start again tomorrow.  However, I praise God that “His mercies are new every single morning!!” because I definitely need that. Read all about it in Lamentations 3:22-23; Psalm 30:2l; and 2 Corinthians 8:1-9.

The secret to being a joy-filled Christian is to live our lives continually being enfolded into Him. Isn’t that a precious thought? I remind myself daily, that His forgiving Love utterly depends on Who He is and what Jesus did. I am loved because He is lovely – not necessarily because I am all that loveable.😂 The Holy Spirit puts His arms around each one of us and He is holding each one of us up, in prayer. He freely gives us His help, and He reminds us of who we really are, by God’s good Grace. Our task is to stay in His hidden place of refreshing and comfort, focussing on HIM and not the humdrum stuff that rushes headlong at us. We may sometimes feel overwhelmed but we do not have to be overcome by this life.

Today I want to talk about another way to read the bible – we can read it to be informed, and transformed, but aside from that because of this book we can also see and know our King. It is good to read the bible as a love letter from Him to us. Part of being enfolded by Him is being aware of and comforted by His Loving Grace. Many people at this time of the year often make New Year resolutions hoping to change bad habits etc. – well here are a few things to think on today that we all need to be reminded of regularly.  Here are some thoughts I had: 

“I will remember, by choice, every single day just how much my Heavenly Father loves me, because of what Jesus chose to do for me. His love has no dark side or purpose in it. It is more constant than the sun in the sky, deeper than the Marianna trench, higher than the heavens, and it does not vary one single bit from one second to the next. People may get sick of me, leave me, hate me, or neglect me – but the Holy Spirit is always there for me, helping me, teaching me, filling me, guiding me, and caring for me.” 

“I am reminding myself, on purpose, that because God’s love toward me is infinite – His love toward YOU is infinite too. So if I feel I cannot love you then I need to remember that my love for you is proportionate to the amount of love I gratefully receive from Him. I cannot truly love you until I understand how wide, how deep and how truly undeserved and unconditional His love is for me.” 

“I am going to stop living with the expectation that everyone else needs to get everything right all the time. We all make mistakes. And with God’s help, I want to stop blaming other people for my own responses and reactions to this life. EVERYBODY has difficulties. So, I set my face to stop demanding that other people understand me before I approve of them. I will no longer excuse myself from doing the very things I get mad at them for.  I’ll remind myself that I cannot say I live in forgiveness, if I won’t own and confess my faults and stop making excuses for what I’ve done. I am not perfect, but God is not finished with me yet. However, He is not finished with you, either.” 

I believe we need to take the time as often as we can, to actively reinforce the things that our Heavenly Father has said and done, as well as the things He has asked us to do. This world encroaches upon us from every side, and the world view we face daily is selfish, and lacking any peace, kindness and true spirituality. If I am not aware of my own faults I could easily turn into a petty, mean-minded individual who is just looking for a fight or disagreement. 

My mission in this life should be to make other people so comfortable, they love to be around me because of His Presence in my everyday life. Christians need to be like honey to a bee. Sweet, appealing, life-giving and satisfying – helping the people around us, by inadvertently creating hunger and thirst in others for the reality of God Himself. 👋🏻