Tuesday, January 1, 2008

Resolved - To Live Again

Last night I read some things that will color this year. The message was a heart alive, filled and transformed by the Holy Spirit.

It's been a long time since I have felt alive. My contrary feeling has been doubt. There was a time when I believed I was worth something, that I could accomplish something, that I was a good husband and father. I don't believe that anymore at least not very much. The world and various messages from other places have taken their toll.

It doesn't do me much good to believe in myself. I know that the heart is deceitful above all else. What good is it if I look in the mirror and pronounce myself as something? It's just one fool talking to another.

What makes a difference is if someone I value speaks well of me. What a difference it makes to have a wife or child say, "I love you, I believe in you, I will follow you. I know you are flawed but that doesn't matter." If you know they are sincere, it enables incredible stuff. The contrary is a horrible empty existence. I've lived in both places.

I’m realizing there is someone outside of me who believes in me. More than anyone else, He knows I am flawed. Before I had any thoughts of Him, while I was still in my sin, He gave His life for me. He exchanged His perfect life to buy my redemption. He saw potential. He saw a heart of stone that could be replaced with a heart of flesh. As He moved into me, I became something good, not me but Him in me.

That is what I want to experience again this year. I want to live with a heart alive. I want to believe I can be something because He in me is something and that I have some good to offer. Maybe I can make a difference. Maybe someone can be better off because of me.

If you treat a man as he is, he will stay as he is. But if you treat him as if he were what he ought to be and could be, he will become the bigger and better man.
- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Philip

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