New Beginnings

New beginnings… it is that time again, the beginning of a New Year where New Year’s resolutions are high on the agendas of most; regardless of how hard the past year has been there is great anticipation even in my own mind, with hope leading the way in anticipation that God will step in and help me with so many pressing areas of my life. A job with steady income would be sincerely appreciated; time and resolve to serve with a greater diligence; growing from strength to strength in sanctification; being a beacon of light to a world that is ensnared by darkness; useful pliable clay in my Master’s hands! These are just some of my expectations that I do not only believe will come to fruition but am induced that by the grace of God they will happen. Faith drives me to believe God for the arrival of His spiritual fruits of salvation to become evident in my life and I see buds beginning to sprout. Faith compels me to have hope in my God, praise His name now and forever more, Amen!

We must understand the need for separation in our lives for this to become our reality. Let God our Heavenly Father teach us His ways so that once we have perceived what must be done to achieve obedience in our daily walks we can call upon His grace to follow His perfect example.

Let us consider; “in the beginning”, God in His perfect brilliance created the heavens and the earth and right there “in the beginning” He called forth light! Here then is the lesson; He would not let light and darkness coexist, “God separated the light from the darkness”. There was time allotment to both the light and the darkness; “God call the light Day and the darkness he called Night”. There was distinct separation! It is not as if we have day and night happening at the same time. Imagine standing in your garden at midday and half your garden would be in direct sunlight and the other half in total darkness with blotches of light and darkness for twenty-four hours. It is not the way God chose to do it, why? Because He is perfect in everything He does!

From the beginning He has taught us that light and darkness are enemies, He is the Father of Lights and Satan is the father of darkness. Light speaks of life whilst darkness depicts death, lies, and everything that opposes God who is light! The same principle exists for us at salvation, we do not experience “re-birth” but we are born again. We were all born through water; our natural birth was of a carnal nature with seeds full of sin bearing fruit engulfed in darkness. But for those who are born again, our spiritual beginning was all new; the old man isn’t patched up, but is reckoned dead. That is why we are “born again” in newness of life. Psychology can only ever do patch work, because it can and will only ever be able to operate in the natural realm. It is not so with God, because He is spiritual He gives us a brand new beginning at salvation; “From now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard him thus no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.” (2Corinthians 5:16-17) – We are now creatures of the light and we belong to the only true God!

Therefore we must understand that we can no longer have our feet in both the light and the darkness at the same time. Just as God separated the light form the darkness we too must learn to follow suite. People-pleasers and fence-sitters are not good examples of who God is and what He has done for us. I am convinced that if we want God’s blessing in our lives we must understand the realm in which he works and that is the separation of light from darkness. Let us flee from the darkness, there is no such thing as a white lie!

This then is my prayer for our lives: that we will find His grace and resolve to appropriate the separation of the light from the darkness with our daily activities. Faith demands this of us; we must believe our God to work out His blessing in our lives. Remember He is for us and not against us! Sometimes we forget this truth; “For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life.” (Romans 5:10) – Let us learn to trust our God and Father and all because of what Christ achieved on our behalf, praise His name, Amen!

Signing off

Tyrone