Saturday, December 09, 2006

Trading In the Old For the New

"Realize that you must lead a dying life; the more a man dies to himself, the more he begins to live unto God."
Those words from Thomas Kempis have been circulating through my mind all week. How difficult it is for us to give up our habits and old ways of life and accept the new creation which Christ desires for us to become.
The bible study I am currently doing has allowed me to see certain areas of sin and struggle in my life that I was either not aware of or had worked hard to ignore. Through reading God's word, participating in this bible study, and asking God to make known to me areas of weakness, my eyes have been opened more to how important it is for me to die to myself and my sin and allow God to dwell in me and make me new. I knew all about grace, but I wasn't fully living in it. I continued to tie myself to certain laws and rules instead of relying on God's mercy and grace to deliver me from the law. God does not ask me to give parts of myself or only that which I am comfortable giving. He asks for everything and will accept no subsitutes. Dying to old habits and selfish ways can be difficult for me because I often have a hard time with change, even if it is change for the better. However I know I cannot be the woman God truely wants me to be unless I am willing to surrender my ways and adopt His ways.
"For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith- and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God." Ephesians 2:8

Prayer Requests
**Complete surrender to all that I cling to
**My work at the orphanage which begins tomorrow
** A Christmas project I am involved in with a very poor, deaf school in Guangxi Province
** A new friend who is searching

1 comment:

foxofbama said...

You are the cover girl for the the SC CBF newsletter for December. Congrats and good words from your folks as well.
Hope to get a copy to Uncle Red here in Collinsville