Start-Over

I used to play many video games as a child, and when I would mess up or made failed attempts, I could always push the start-over button. In life, have you ever wished you had a start-over button?

While submission to Christ might seem sacrificial, there are overabundances of blessings that individuals obtain from it. In reality, when a person receives Christ, He offers them a start over, in Him. Jesus promises, “I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved. They will come in and go out, and find pasture. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full. (John 10:9, 10).

John Calvin responds to this text stating,

“If any man enter by me. The highest consolation of believers is, that when they have once embraced Christ, they learn that they are out of danger; for Christ promises to them salvation and happiness. He afterwards divides it into two parts. He shall go in and out, and find pasture. First, they shall go safely wherever they find necessary; and, next, they shall be fed to the full.”(Calvin’s Commentaries)

This is the direct a result when a person believes that Jesus Christ is the Messiah, who died for the sins of the world, to offer individuals eternal life.

Therefore, my reality is that no season or situation in my life has presented anything remotely as generous as the redeeming grace of God/ or as we can call it the start-over. However, not only did I receive access to the kingdom, a greater peace, and many other God ordained blessings, I was given an exchanged life in Christ.

Listen to the Word, “Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.”(2 Corinthians 5:17) The life I now live is not just the result of something I heard, or something I read. My life was out of control in life dominating sin until the savior entered my heart and exchanged it for His glory. He made my spirit alive in Him, changing my heart and desires.

As a result, the Holy Spirit is now my advocate for wisdom. The Word is the basis of my foundational truth and prayer is my direct line to the father. My name is written in the lamb’s book of life, and I have this intimate relationship for eternity with God.

Paul declares, “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” (Galatians 2:20).

The former Juan Mendez, the evil doer, in bondage to sin, in bondage to the law, with skewed perceptions, along with a host of other carnalities, are now dead in Christ, at this instant, I now get to start-over with and in the risen Savior. – Juan Mendez graduated from the Colony of Mercy, serves on the leadership team at America’s Keswick, and is a Dean’s List student at Lancaster Bible College

Daily Bible Reading: 2 Chronicles 25-27

Think About This: I have often repented of speech but hardly ever of silence. —C.S. Lewis

This Week’s Verse to Memorize: I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish. Galatians 5:16-17 NKJV