Start Your New Life Today Part 1

Start Your New Life Today.

Joyce Meyer.

PART ONE.

A Brand-New Start.

INTRODUCTION.

The Most Important Decision You Will Ever Make.

Do you sometimes wish you could start over? Or do you lead a successful life from all outward appearances but often wonder, Surely there must be more to life than this? In either case, there is good news for you. G.o.d wants to make your life new. He wants to give you a brand-new start if you need one.

Some people have tried religion hoping to find a solution to their frustrating existence. The people who find "religion" to be a burden of lifeless and unreasonable rules they are unable to keep have not found G.o.d. If you are one of those people, G.o.d has a new life to give you through His Son Jesus Christ. Jesus did not die to offer us religion, rather he died to give us an opportunity to have an intimate relations.h.i.+p with G.o.d through faith in Him.

If you need to feel loved, if you need your sins forgiven, if you need a friend who will help you with everything you do, if you need a great future, Jesus Christ is your answer. He is waiting to make you into a brand-new creation and give you a new life beyond the best you could possibly imagine.

If you are not satisfied with your life, then you must change something. Like anyone else, if you keep doing the same things you have always done, you will have the life you have always had. You need to make a decision, the most important decision you will ever make.

This decision is more important than your career choice, where you will attend college, whom you will marry, how you will invest your money, or where you will live. This decision concerns eternity. Eternity is time without end, and there is life after death. When we die, we don't cease to exist; we just begin to exist in another place. It has been said that dying is like going through a revolving door. We simply leave one place and go to another. We-every one of us-need to know where we will spend eternity.

The decision to receive Jesus is a new birth into a relations.h.i.+p with G.o.d for eternity beginning here on earth. When you receive Jesus as your Savior, your spirit is made alive to G.o.d. The Bible tells us if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature-re-created, born anew. Old things have pa.s.sed away and all things are brand-new (see 2 Corinthians 5:17). Jesus takes our sin, and we are made right with G.o.d (see 2 Corinthians 5:21). G.o.d imputes righteousness to us or credits it to our account (see Romans 4:11).

The new birth happens in an instant. The burden of sin is lifted and we have a brand-new opportunity in our lives. Learning to live the new life is a process, but not one of trying to conform our behavior to a set of rules of what we think a Christian should be. Many Christians without an understanding of the new life G.o.d makes available to them through Jesus spend their lives trying to earn their own righteousness through doing good works. This doesn't work because G.o.d has already made them acceptable to Him at new birth through Jesus. Righteousness is a free gift from G.o.d to be received through faith. Trying to earn a free gift is like trying to get into a chair in which you are already sitting. It is impossible and very frustrating!

The new life is a process of transformation. G.o.d doesn't work just with our behavior; He also changes our hearts. When we seriously commit ourselves to Jesus as Savior and Lord, G.o.d begins transforming us from the inside out. He makes us like Jesus inside and wants to work what is in us out for other people to see and experience Jesus.

This transformation doesn't happen overnight and will seem very slow at times. One of the benefits of living in a relations.h.i.+p with Jesus is the freedom to forget the past and move ahead into what G.o.d has for us. Jeremiah 29:11 describes the type of future He has in store for us: "For I know the thoughts and plans that I have for you, says the Lord, thoughts and plans for welfare and peace and not for evil, to give you hope in your final outcome."

When you are tempted to condemn yourself over the progress you think you should be making, turn your focus back on Jesus and G.o.d's promises for us recorded in the Bible. Remind yourself, "I'm okay and I'm on my way!" Remember that through faith you have been made right with G.o.d, and even though you have not arrived at perfection you are making progress.

Is it hard to make daily the right decisions to allow G.o.d to transform you? Yes, like many other things in life, it is hard at times, and we all make mistakes along the way. Is it worth sticking to? Absolutely!

Many people come to Jesus sincerely desiring to start a new life but don't know what to do after they receive Him. Take this opportunity to begin enjoying the journey G.o.d has for you, and start your new life today. You can have a dynamic intimate relations.h.i.+p with G.o.d and an amazing life!

CHAPTER 1.

Start Your New Life Today.

When you receive Jesus as your Savior, a divine exchange takes place. You give Him your sin and guilt, your shame and blame; He gives you right standing with G.o.d. You give Him the impoverished areas of your life; He gives you abundance. Jesus wants to give you beauty for ashes in every area of your life.

Sometimes people ask, "What would I have to give up if I became a Christian?"

I tell them, "Well, you would have to give up misery and sin. You would give up depression and discouragement, fear, worry, and anxiety. Do you carry around a burden of guilt and condemnation? You would also give that up."

Some people seem to think G.o.d wants to steal everything we enjoy. G.o.d isn't mean! He is love, and He is good. The Bible says G.o.d gives us all things ceaselessly to enjoy (see 1 Timothy 6:17). G.o.d loves us so much He sent His Son, Jesus, to earth to take our sins and give us life, life more abundantly (see John 3:16; 10:10). When we receive Jesus, we receive the kingdom of G.o.d within us, and that kingdom is righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit (see Romans 14:17). We can choose to continue living with misery, depression, discouragement, fear, worry, anxiety, guilt, and condemnation, but Jesus wants us to receive freedom from those things. Through Jesus, "we are more than conquerors and gain a surpa.s.sing victory through Him Who loved us" (Romans 8:37).

A new birth into a new life is not supposed to be a door into a downtrodden, miserable existence of struggling to keep religious rules and regulations and feeling guilty when we fail. G.o.d gives us a new life and new desires to go along with it. We may lose interest in pursuing some things we used to like very much. A new life as a new creation in relations.h.i.+p with Jesus has brought the fulfillment we used to seek elsewhere. As these changes take place in us, we may not fully understand what we are feeling, but as we trust G.o.d He gives us clarity and we begin enjoying our new life in Christ.

The people who wonder what they would have to give up by choosing to receive Jesus are often cycling through repeated behaviors looking for fulfillment they will never find. If you are one of those people, are you tired of living the way you are living? Are you tired of going through life feeling bad about yourself all the time? Are you tired of making decisions you know are wrong and then feeling guilty about those decisions? Do you want to find the fulfillment you are missing? You may be tired of wondering what will happen to you in the future or tired of being afraid of dying. The good news is Jesus has peace for you.

If you haven't done a good job of running your own life, why not turn it over to the One who created you and knows more about you than you will ever know about yourself? If you start having trouble with an automobile, you take it back to the people who manufactured it to fix it. A similar principle is true with G.o.d. He created you and loves you very much. If your life is not satisfying to you, then take it to Him to fix it.

If you want to have a relations.h.i.+p with G.o.d here on earth and live with Him for eternity, you need to receive Jesus Christ as your Savior. We have all sinned and we all need a Savior. G.o.d sent His only Son to pay the penalty for our sins. He was crucified and shed His innocent blood as payment for our wrongdoing. He died and was buried, but on the third day He arose from the dead and is now seated in heaven, at the right hand of G.o.d the Father. He is your only hope of having peace, joy, and right standing with G.o.d.

Your life will not change unless you make that very important decision to receive Jesus as your Savior. The choice to accept new life in G.o.d is available to everyone. No one is left out. And no one can make your choice for you. It is yours and yours alone to make. What quality of life do you desire to have? Do you really want to follow the example you see in our society today? G.o.d's Word tells us we came into the world with nothing and we will go out with nothing (see 1 Timothy 6:7). Don't spend your life on things that will end up in a junkyard somewhere. Spend it laying up treasure in heaven (see Matthew 6:20).

The choice to accept new life in G.o.d is available to everyone. No one is left out.

G.o.d is the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. In the beginning there was G.o.d and in the end there will be G.o.d. Every person will stand before Him and give an account of their life (see Romans 14:12). Do you want to use your life to build up treasures in heaven and let G.o.d use you in a way that can affect others for eternity? As you use your life for eternal significance, you will find the fulfilling life on earth you have been seeking. Anything we give to G.o.d immediately takes on immortality. If we give Him our time, talents, and possessions, He can use them to do good things here and for eternity. If we give them to the world, they will end up in a junkyard. It might be good for all of us to visit a junkyard once a year to remind ourselves that all temporal things eventually end up there.

CHAPTER 2.

Leave Guilt Behind Sin is deliberate disobedience to the known will of G.o.d. We have all sinned. There is no one on the earth who never sins (see Ecclesiastes 7:20). This is the bad news: "All have sinned and are falling short of the honor and glory which G.o.d bestows and receives" (Romans 3:23).

There is also good news. We can all be forgiven and made right with G.o.d: "[All] are justified and made upright and in right standing with G.o.d, freely and gratuitously by His grace (His unmerited favor and mercy) through the redemption which is [provided] in Christ Jesus" (v. 24).

Sin leads to destruction. G.o.d's Word says our sin will find us out (see Numbers 32:23). Sin brings a curse and obedience brings blessing (see Deuteronomy 28). For a season, people may appear to be unaffected by their sin. Their lives may appear to be as good as anyone else's, but in the end there will always be consequences for choices made. G.o.d speaks about the outcome of people attempting to live without Him: "And I will bring distress upon men, so that they shall walk like blind men, because they have sinned against the Lord; their blood shall be poured out like dust and their flesh like dung. Neither their silver nor their gold shall be able to deliver them in the day of the Lord's indignation and wrath. But the whole earth shall be consumed in the fire of His jealous wrath, for a full, yes, a sudden, end will He make of all the inhabitants of the earth" (Zephaniah 1:1718).

These scriptures are fearsome, but they need not strike fear in the heart of a sincere believer in Jesus Christ. We who believe in Jesus shall never come up for judgment or condemnation (see John 3:18). G.o.d forgives our sins when we admit them, are sorry for them, and are willing to allow Him to help us turn entirely away from them.

"If we [freely] admit that we have sinned and confess our sins, He is faithful and just (true to His own nature and promises) and will forgive our sins [dismiss our lawlessness] and [continuously] cleanse us from all unrighteousness [everything not in conformity to His will in purpose, thought, and action]" (1 John 1:9). As new creations in right standing with G.o.d through Jesus, we have been provided the way to ask for and receive forgiveness and turn away from what we did wrong through the power of G.o.d's Spirit working in us.

The people who choose a life of sin rather than a life of obedience to G.o.d experience misery in their souls. Man lives in a body made of flesh and bones, but man is actually a spirit and has a soul. The soul is comprised of the mind, will, and emotions. The soul is the personality of man. No matter what people without Jesus do or possess, they cannot find anything to completely satisfy them. Sinners, in choosing to run their own lives instead of giving G.o.d control, suffer in their minds. When things don't go their way, they are in mental anguish and become frustrated or angry knowing nothing of the way of faith. To trust G.o.d-a power greater than themselves-is incomprehensible to them. They never allow rest to enter their minds-or their souls. Their lot in life is misery, misery, and more misery!

The constant companion of sinners is guilt. They are unable to escape it. They may try a variety of ways to ignore it, but deep down inside they know their lives are not right. The Bible is divided into two parts representing man's condition and G.o.d's solution to remove the sin and guilt separating man from Him. The first part, the Old Testament, is just that, the old way, representing the Old Covenant G.o.d used to cover the sins of the people until the time came for Jesus to establish a New Covenant.

Under the Old Covenant, the people's sins could be covered through a system of giving sacrifices for their sins. The sins were covered but never removed. The guilt was always present. However, under the New Covenant-the second part of the Bible, the New Testament-Jesus became the perfect and final sacrifice. He didn't cover the sins but removed and completely washed them away, along with the guilt that accompanies them.

You need not wait for G.o.d to do something. He has already done what needs to be done. He gave His only Son to die in our place because only a perfect and sinless sacrifice could be offered to pay for our misdeeds. Justice has been satisfied and we can enjoy a life of freedom through believing in Jesus Christ and entering an intimate relations.h.i.+p with G.o.d through Him. We cannot go to G.o.d on our own-we need an advocate. We need someone as a go-between, and that someone is Jesus. In order to bring us to G.o.d, Jesus stood in the gap between us and G.o.d, the gap that our sin had created.

The only way to enter G.o.d's rest is through believing in Him (see Hebrews 4:3). Just as a child has his father in him (genetically), so G.o.d was in Christ reconciling the world back to Himself. G.o.d loves the people He created, and He is unwilling to see them live enslaved to sin without providing a way out. Jesus is the way!

G.o.d loves the people He created, and He is unwilling to see them live enslaved to sin without providing a way out. Jesus is the way!

Jesus has already paid for your sins. All you need to do is believe it and learn how to receive what He did and has for you to begin walking in your new life.

CHAPTER 3.

You Are Free When you become a new creation, Jesus removes your guilt. You may have already received Jesus and started your new life. Even though you know Jesus legally removed your guilt, do you still feel guilty?

G.o.d gave us emotions to enjoy, but they can also work against us and control our lives. Part of the process of learning how to allow G.o.d's Spirit to work in us to transform us is in learning how to manage our emotions. To do that we start by taking G.o.d's Word as the truth over the direction our emotions are trying to lead us. The way you learn the difference is through spending time reading, studying, and thinking about G.o.d's Word. As you do this "renewing of your mind" (see Romans 12:2), the power of G.o.d's Spirit, life, and truth in His Written Word works to transform you and your thinking. There is actually power inherent in the Word of G.o.d. As we take it into ourselves through reading, studying, or thinking about it, things actually change in us. Our mind changes, our emotions are calmed, and our wills are made pliable and willing to bend in G.o.d's direction.

Studying scriptures about freedom from guilt and condemnation will actually strengthen you and enable you to resist them when they come. Always remember there is power in the Word. Go to the concordance in the back of your Bible where you will find a list of scriptures by topic. Look up the scriptures you find on guilt and condemnation and write them down and read them out loud frequently. As you do this you are renewing your mind to think the way G.o.d thinks, and you will eventually enjoy complete freedom from the negative emotions of false guilt.

Believers in Jesus Christ don't have to spend their lives feeling guilty; and they don't have to sacrifice their peace and joy, because Jesus became a sacrifice once and for all and there is no sacrifice that ever needs to be added to His. Under the Old Covenant, the sacrifices had to be made over and over again, yet they never removed the guilt. Jesus became one sacrifice good for all time and it does remove the sin and guilt.

Learning the Word of G.o.d and obeying it no matter how we feel forms a lifestyle of obedience, ushering in blessings beyond compare.

The guilt is legally removed, but we may still need to learn how to live free from the feelings of guilt. In the new life lived for Christ, we learn how to no longer allow our feelings to rule us. Spending the time to learn what the Word of G.o.d says gives us the knowledge to discern and live according to the truth. When we practice responding to situations we encounter in our daily lives with actions based on the truth of G.o.d's Word, we continue walking in the direction G.o.d has for us in our new life. Reacting with our emotions often takes us in a wrong direction. Learning the Word of G.o.d and obeying it no matter how we feel forms a lifestyle of obedience, ushering in blessings beyond compare. Instead of going through life reacting emotionally we can choose to act according to G.o.d's Word. We can examine each situation and choose to do what Jesus would do in that same situation. As we make right choices we will reap good consequences and our lives will be much more enjoyable.

CHAPTER 4.

Simply Receive G.o.d's Love for You The story below ill.u.s.trates the power of John 3:16 (KJV): "For G.o.d so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life."