“I will put a new spirit in you.” Ez.37:14
How do I define ‘who I am?’ For many the answer to this age old question is based on superficial data such as the position they hold in society, the neighborhood in which they reside, the fancy club membership they boast, and the designer wardrobe hanging in their closets. Most will agree it is pretty shallow criterion for such a significant question!
Instead, what truly defines us are the interior components which shape the who we are. Sometimes how we experience life’s situations and circumstances determines if we are happy, angry, fulfilled or ungratified individuals. However if we allow our emotions or our past to define us, we may find ourselves drowning in tears of self-pity—merely wasting time and energy. Moreover, God who searches deep within our hearts in the psalmist’s words desires to know us in a new and more meaningful way.
What does the Lord expect of us? His is a desire for us to cast off our old manner of being and bad habits of oppression–all that which hinders us from growing closer to God, and placing our failings and errors at the foot of the cross. The Call of God if heeded not only positions His word in us, but encourages it to be first digested then eventually penetrate the core of our being. Why?—to prepare us for change, a change that will promulgate the seeding and bloom of a new springtime within.
God’s Dream for us is the new spirit, an empowering joy, which will strengthen the glorious hold He has on our lives. His Will is for us to recognize the blockages preventing us from fully living the Lord’s Master Plan. Once we agree to accept God’s Desire to illuminate our lives we will no longer be hampered with crippling fears. Instead, all feelings of panic and trepidation will fade away. Uniting with the Lord’s Will, we must pray for the courage to walk away from our fears. Such maiming emotions cloud our vision and enfeeble our ability to hope. Thus we remain suffocated with incapacities and consequently unable to acknowledge the new springtime spirit welling up within us.
Listen to the Lord! His energizing message fortifies, giving us the strength to cast off the shades of darkness– the world’s definition of who we are. Listen as He invites us to accept His call. Through the power of the Cross, He urges us to embrace a new sprit of life in the name of Jesus.
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