Guest Author - Jenna Robinson

How many new beginnings have you had in your life? If your like most people, you’ve had quite a few. Maybe you were born in another state and your family moved. Maybe you’ve started another job with the hopes of working your way up the corporate ladder. Sometimes, buying a new house is a new beginning. Remember when you bought your first one? The excitement and anxiousness you felt? Is this the right house? Can I make the payments? What about insurance? Or a new car; is this car a good car? Will it get good gas mileage? New beginnings are all around us. The change from winter to spring and then into summer. When we accept Jesus as our personal Savior we experience a new beginning in our lives too.

It’s not just because we are forgiven of all our sins past present and future, but we are changed inside. Who we are becomes different. There’s a man who was a real hard case. He was the master of his own domain and in charge of his own life. He was in control. The day he came face to face with the Lord Almighty he realized that what he thought was so important wasn’t important at all any more. In fact, this realization was almost instantaneous. The change was so profound that he spent many months afterward trying to get back to the position he was in before. He couldn’t understand why everything was in chaos. His job and his finances and his marriage were all turned up side down. He went to his Pastor and asked him what was going on. The pastor assured him that all he had to do was trust in the Lord and all things would become clear. Well, this answer didn’t satisfy the man so he went to his men’s group and asked a couple of them. If you’ve ever seen a men’s group answer a question then you know that it was with mostly shrugs and mumbles and averted eyes.

After the group, a quiet man approached this guy and they sat to talk. The other guy told this man that the same thing had happened to him. He said that he was so busy trying to be in control that he was squeezing God completely out of his life. He told the man that since he wasn’t letting God be in control of EVERY aspect of his life, God had hit the pause button and everything was running amuck. The guy told the man that in order for things to calm down, he had to go to the Lord once more and specifically surrender everything in his life completely. The man went home and thought about this. He thought about it long and hard. He thought about it for a week, then he thought about it for a month. Then his wife got sick, and he hit the floor on his knees. He begged the Lord to let her live. He surrendered everything from his job, to his parents, to his children, to his temptations. He acknowledged his weaknesses and his fears. He felt like a small child before the King of Kings.

With tears on his cheeks, he went to his wife and told her everything. Now, his wife recovered and got better quickly, she was a strong woman with a strong faith. Her husband, became a strong man with a stronger faith and their life calmed down. The minute this man surrendered to Jesus, he was set free. He understands that when we make the choice to accept Jesus, that’s only the beginning. The real work is in the day to day. Every day we choose to walk with the Lord. If we don’t choose to let Jesus lead, everything will be in chaos until we hit our knees and give Him the wheel. Every day is a new beginning when we let God direct our paths. His Word is lamp unto my feet. Without it, I can’t see where I’m going!!