Transitions

                                             

Everyone has a story. Everyone has a past. Everyone has a struggle. Everyone has a faulty thought life or we would all be Jesus. It is impossible to be perfect. 

Romans: 3:10: “As it is written: None is righteous, no, not one.”

I am no different. I am going to be 60 next year. I lived about 70-80% of my life thinking that I was a Christian solely because I believed in Him. Much of that time, I gave Him no thought at all. How I lived, thought and talked was definitely not producing the fruit of a Christian. 

My transition to Christ really started in about 2004. Many would say that it doesn’t start until you are baptized or it doesn’t start until you truly change your life. I don’t agree. I feel that it begins when you surrender to Him and begin to crave His word. When you are convicted of sinful things in your life and are praying for His help to change your way of life to His desire for your life.

You see, He was pursuing me since I was about five years old staring up at the stars and talking to Him. He didn't stop. Even in my sin, years later, He would guide me, convict me, warn me, save me and bless me. I could give a hundred examples of times when I wasn’t in line with His word but He stepped in as my defender and protector and it transformed my life once again.

I didn’t sin for the selfish reason of knowing that I was forgiven so that I could sin. I wasn’t arrogant and selfish about it. I was in the process of change. I was struggling against my flesh. I was literally in a spiritual battle and a physical war for my soul.

Once I accepted Him as my savior, I was filled with the Spirit and compelled to change my ways… but it wasn’t an overnight process. For me, it wasn’t an instantaneous, immediate transformation. It was a war. It took time. I lost some skirmishes but stayed to win the war. I didn’t give up hope or faith the first time I fell. I read the bible enough to know of His promises and I believed that He called me long ago. That gave me the strength to get back up and fight.

Phil 4:13: “I can do all things through Him that strengthens me.”

Unlike some of the miracles that you hear about, it doesn’t always happen in an instant and you are free. Just work at a Teen Challenge to see that this isn’t the case for many. I had some pretty heavy demons running my life for a long time.

In only one respect, that I can recall, He struck the sin from my life immediately and permanently. I had cried with shame and regret to the point where He had mercy on me. Immediately, I was freed from bondage and it felt as if it had never happened. So it can and does happen.

I had some horrible thought processes, some bad habits, some faulty self-destructive behaviors and a horrible self image. During my transition, I was pleading, even angry with Him to save me from myself. I couldn’t see the light at the end of the tunnel and it made me angry. How am I supposed to get from the person that I was to the person that He says I am?? To me, it just wasn’t possible. And I was right. But all things are possible with Christ who strengthened me.

1 Cor 10:13: “No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.”

I prayed and read and pleaded with God to give me the ability to be faithful and true. The first time that I actually said no to my flesh, through His power, not mine, I felt such a surge of gratitude!! I cried. I knew that once I said no, the next time would be easier and the next time, and the next hurdle. He was with me and gave me the strength that I needed to fight.

Now, as I look back, those fleshly desires and things that distracted me are so far away that it seems almost as if it wasn’t me at all. My words to you are this: trust Him. Have faith in His love for you and His strength being with you, to get you through. Some things may be instantaneously. Some may take more work. And our thought life must always be policed because we are human and we could easily fall prey to darkness through our thoughts.

Remember this… it is not just your fleshly desires that we fight against. It is for our souls. To whom shall we belong? It is literally light over dark, good over evil, life over death.

Ephesians 6:12: “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.”