Spring: Our Time for New Beginnings and Growth
With Spring comes new hope, faith and freedom to live and love as Christ Loves Us.
Hello and Happy Spring Everyone! Thank you for popping in today!
It is Finally Spring here in Southern Maine! The Birds,,, Oh the Birds…with beautiful (and LOUD) songs early in the morning! The trees have begun to have signs of new growth and blooms, and in general, it feels New and Exciting, and Hopeful, here in New England by the Coast!
I hope that most of you were able to Celebrate Easter, or Passover with Family or Friends. It is truly the day that allows Spring to blossom within each of our souls. To think of Jesus suffering-every cutting lash, every horrifically painful nail in his body barely holding him upon the Cross, every thorn pressing into his precious skin, and every tear that He shed. I believe His tears were both of Sorrow and of Joy. For He KNEW (Joy) that He was about to be risen up to God the Father, Himself, and yet He KNEW(Sorrow) knowing that there will be many who do not choose the path of accepting him as their savior, and would perish. It hurts my heart every time I think about all the times that I have added more pain to that Cross with Him, that my actions have not only hurt someone else, and myself, but truly hurts Jesus and our Heavenly Father. We all have the beautiful promise, and chance to leave our sins of the past with the Cross, and live each day with Spring in our hearts, actions, words, thoughts. Let us look at the actual Definition of Spring:
Verb:
To move or burst forth.
To appear. To mature.
To arise, to come into existence.
arise, form, take shape
To enliven.
To move with great speed and energy.
To be born, descend, or originate from
I would like to challenge each of you to think upon these words each morning, and to put them into use in your daily journey of Following Faith, Finding Freedom. The Cross represents the gift of forgiveness that each of us are blessed with, and we are called to bestow this same blessing on others. Please know there is freedom in forgiving others, or ourselves. So let go of the anger, resentments, hurt, annoyances, and grief, and truly experience those chains holding you down disappear. Christ tells us in Colossians 3:13-
“Make allowance for each other's faults, and forgive anyone who offends you. Remember, the Lord forgave you, so you must forgive others. 13 Be even-tempered, content with second place, quick to forgive an offense. Forgive as quickly and completely as the Master forgave you”.
How can you Spring into action today? Who can you bless with the action of Forgiveness?
Now, please go out and enjoy the beautiful sunshine, and witness so many rebirths and beauty surrounding us!
We are all broken, yes, ALL!
I think we can all relate to the challenges in life that can leave us feeling crushed, broken, defeated, unworthy of love or happiness. But too often, we don’t allow ourselves to sit in our “feelings/emotions” long enough to analyze them, and be humbled by them, and then make a difference with that pain, to produce something positive.
When I say I “Feel your pain” or I “understand what the darkest of dark places in life look like”, I am sincere. Too often, those of us who truly want to do good in this world, who are strong, and committed to make change, will be the hardest to fall.
You ask why is that? it is very simple: it is the long standing spiritual warfare between God and Satan. If you are a threat to Satan, and desire to live a life shining a bright light on goodness, you are a threat! He will find your weakest points, and he will pull you into his darkness. And boy does it get dark there!
However, our God loves us so incredibly well, and so unconditionally, that He will never stop opening doors and windows, and shining his beautiful bright light and love into our lives. No matter HOW DARK, or how far from him we may be.
Through my own destruction and pain, I know God was allowing me to become humble, and broken, so that I could stop relying on myself and start depending on Him. This, my friend, is where the Faith comes in. At no point, did I ever question whether God loved me, and I made the choice to hold tight to my faith in Him, which ultimately lead me to FREEDOM!
Does that mean that daily I don’t struggle with insecurities, or sadness at how certain relationships or areas of my life can still cause tremendous sadness and pain? of course not! We are all human, we all experience a very wide range of emotions. But learning what our different emotions are trying to tell us, and then addressing those emotions with tools you can learn to master, will be the key to finding joy in every season.
Welcome to my blog, and I look so forward to building a safe place for us to share joy, grief, disappointments, failures, victories, broken relationships, marriages, families, and even how broken countries impact our daily lives. They say the “Proof is in the pudding”…. well I say that “Freedom is in our Faith”.