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Surrendered to Love

    by Jeannie Pallett

Walking with God through the Changes in our Lives
Date Posted: February 21, 2012

When we ask God to bless us; do we expect that life will remain the same?

Are we so caught up in the goodness of our current day-to-day life that we forget to envision something new and different because of the blessing of God?

Do we forget that God is always at work in us and that the work of God is to make us fit for His purposes? Are we willing to embrace the idea of change?

We will meet God in change – change happens to us all because the Word says, “from glory to glory He is changing us”.

Whenever we turn in repentance to the Lord, the veil of deceit and delusion is taken away. That is the beginning of a change.

Repentance means in part, that we turn and go in the opposite direction, the way that is pleasing to God.

Repentance also involves a sorrowing over our sin because of the grief it caused the heart of the Father.

Repentance means to change and because we have connected with God and are in relationship with Him, our repentance therefore brings about a change in us. We have a new heart.

If we are spending time in the Word, the power of it changes us and it is Christ in us who is being formed, Christ in us the hope of glory.

Change – ready or not, prepared or unprepared, it happens to us all on many different levels. Growing in God requires change, requires a heart willing to embrace change.

Physical and spiritual changes take place almost imperceptively and yet one day we take stock of ourselves and often can wonder when it happened

We must grow up and mature in Christ – this requires change. We must not find it too hard to put away childish things, childish ways of being and see our inner selves emerge strong in Christ and in the power of His might.

In all of our times of change, times when we think it is too difficult, God meets us in the midst of them. Therefore, we can say that times of change give us a unique opportunity to catch a glimpse of God working in our lives in ways we may not have seen before. A good reason to embrace change.

God called Abraham; He called him toward Himself and then called him out, directing a change in his life and lifestyle.

Abraham had to leave behind the comforts of the familiar and travel to lands unknown.

Each of us is called – called to come towards the heart of God, be embraced by Him and leave behind the inward enemies of our souls and to share in the blessings of our redemption. This is new territory, new ground for us to walk upon and enter fully into. Is this a change that we embrace, welcome, and look forward to growing in?

Fear, doubt, unbelief, any ungodly, unfruitful emotion that will stand in the way of the liberation God intends for us in the change must be cut off.

What results is godly change. It is a journey that takes time. The change will enable us to discern and discover the new place God has for us; the new role for us to fill in the body of Christ because we are maturing in Him.

We need to learn the art of silence – waiting in silence for God alone – listening in the silence for the voice of God as He calls us toward Himself and desires to give direction to us in our journey.

We will also want to infuse our times of reflecting with Scripture and develop our love for the Word of God.

We all have the emotional attachments of family, friends, and the familiar comforts of our homes. These bring a sense of security, a place of belonging and yet above all else we must experience for ourselves the security and goodness that is in the love God has for us.

A security we experience even if we were stripped of all the other so that we can stand and proclaim the goodness and greatness of our God without wavering. The goodness of God poured out in our lives always brings about change.

One of the desires of the Father’s heart is that we be willing to let go of our hold and quit trying to control our lives, quit trying to control our circumstances and our outcomes and simply trust Him and reach out to Him with open heart and empty hands.

Sometimes our emotional attachments are akin to the ungodly emotions mentioned above, we have a loathing to part with them, and we are unwilling to move out of that area. They become like familiar friends difficult to part with.

Yet is has been suggested that the call to faith is a call to leave and follow whether we stay physically in the same place or not. It is a worthy pursuit to consider how it might be possible for each of us to leave in order to follow the call of God and yet not physically move!

King David describes the man in Psalm 1 whose faith in God made him “like a tree planted by the rivers of water”. David must have seen many trees in his days as a shepherd. Some may have been brown and fruitless, but the tree he described was green and fruitful, young or old it did not matter. He saw a tree that continued to bear abundant crops of delicious fruit planted by the rivers of water. Its boughs were strong and its roots were deep. God wants us to be like that tree that grows better and better all the time, putting forth its green leaves and sweet fruit because of its hidden resources underground. God wants us to drink from those same rivers of living water so that our lives may give refreshment to one another.

This is one way of meeting God and walking with Him through the changes in the seasons of our lives. The fruitfulness of the tree affected David’s life.Whose life or lives are we affecting and what kind of a footprint are we leaving upon the ground where we tread?

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Biography Information:
Who am I ? I am a woman who has been pursued by a God who passionately loves me; a woman who is learning to surrender her heart and mind to that great Lover of my soul. I am a woman who is learning to die to self in order that I might live the abundant life that God has planned for me. He has ignited in my heart a passion for writing as I spend time in His Presence and  to share the tender heart of my God through the words He gives me. I am the author of Beckoned by the King and less of me and more of Him can be found at http://Psalm119Greaterthangold.net
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