Blog – May 6, 2015
Living A Brand New Life
Romans 6:4, “We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.”
I am sitting in an airport as I write this blog, flying home from another amazing trip to Nashville, and I realized as I read this verse that I truly am living a brand new life. Sometimes it doesn’t feel that way as I get caught up in the day-to-day struggles and worries of life, but the reality is, my life has been dramatically changed because of my faith.
As people made new in Christ, we are called to live lives that look different from the rest of the world; but that’s hard to do sometimes, isn’t it. Maybe not a lot has changed in your life since you became a believer, problems that plagued you are still there, financial worries haven’t gone away, your health hasn’t improve. All in all, life may seem as hard or harder now as it was before. How can that be?
I have found that sometimes the hardest things in life lead to the best things in life…and for me it has lead to my new life. Let me explain. When my first husband left me after 20 years of marriage, I literally thought my life was doomed. I didn’t think I would ever know true happiness or peace again. Everything I had planned for seemed gone, and my past was now something I wanted to forget.
After I trudged through the intense pain of divorce, I started walking in the light again, and my new life started opening up before me. I met my husband, John, and started down a journey I never dreamed I could live as he encouraged me to quit my “real” job to do music full-time. Through the years, I thought my childhood dream of doing music had come and gone…there was NO WAY I could embark on a full-time career in music at my age. God had other plans, however, as He gently showed me His path to my new life.
Finally, here I am living out my purpose in life, which has always been music. God knew it, of course, and kept whispering to me about it through the years, but it took me a long time to embrace it and believe it myself. God was continually molding and shaping me and giving me the trust it would take to make that leap of faith.
So I ask you, how does your brand new life in Christ look? It might not involve a major career change for you like it did for me, but is your life different today than it was before you accepted God’s love and grace into your heart? Some of you have dramatic stories of lives transformed from the destruction of addictions to lives lived in the freedom of grace. Many of you have suffered intense abuse only to have God give you forgiveness and peace that can only come from Him. Others of you don’t have dramatic tales of lives turned upside down, but are more like me…change has been gradual.
Remember, as Romans 6 says, our sins and our past have been buried through baptism. So wherever your journey is taking you right now, whether somewhere new and exciting or hard and painful, I pray that you will stand firm on God’s truth and be a light that leads others to a brand new life in Christ!
~Jill
