New Beginnings

New Beginnings

New beginnings are both scary and exciting.

I am no longer living in the season of "Pray! you whore" or being a "backsliding heifer." I have shared my testimony, confessed the truth, and committed myself to daily repentance. Now I am entering a new season—one of accepting the calling God has placed on my life and walking into the eternal light that is available to every one of us.

Many of life's greatest lessons are born through grief, pain, and shame. The question is not whether we will experience hardship, but whether we will find God in the middle of it. That is often where our faith is tested and refined.

Today, I move forward with clarity and peace, confident that I am held securely in God's hands. His peace truly transcends all understanding.

However, maturity in Christ requires that we honestly look in the mirror with both humility and repentance. True repentance is more than feeling sorry for our sins—it is a genuine change of heart that produces a genuine change in direction. That has been one of the greatest lessons of this season.

I have learned that God is always in control. Sometimes He lovingly leads us into a wilderness season, not to punish us but to transform us. Reading through Exodus reminded me how rebellion, hardened hearts, and continual disobedience kept the Israelites wandering in the wilderness for forty years when the journey could have taken only forty days.

How often do we blame others when God is inviting us to examine our own hearts?

The truth is that God remains faithful. His promises never fail, and His purposes always bear fruit.

As I enter my own forty-day season, I have realized that obedience and complete dependence upon the Lord are matters of spiritual life and death. Sometimes we simply have to admit our stubbornness and trust that God knows exactly what is needed to move us forward.

Many of us need to reevaluate our expectations and our investments.

Recently, the Holy Spirit revealed a powerful lesson through the story of Abram and Lot in Genesis 13, and I would like to share what I learned.

Genesis 13 is titled "Abram and Lot Separate." Although they were family, they had different desires, different priorities, and different spiritual appetites.

Simply put, Abram and Lot had different expectations.

How can we expect people to live according to God's truth if they have not embraced His reality for their own lives?

Genesis 13:8–9 says:

"So Abram said to Lot, 'Let's not have any quarreling between you and me, or between your herders and mine, for we are close relatives. Is not the whole land before you? Let's part company. If you go to the left, I'll go to the right; if you go to the right, I'll go to the left.'"

What strikes me about this passage is Abram's wisdom.

There was no manipulation.

No control.

No forced expectations.

Lot was given the freedom to choose.

Sometimes growth creates tension because it exposes differences in values, priorities, and expectations. What may feel like a painful ending is often God's loving protection and the beginning of something far greater.

Lot chose land near Sodom.

Abram chose the land God had promised.

One pursued what appeared prosperous.

The other pursued what was faithful.

Remember this:

It is always easier to pull someone down than it is to lift someone up.

Who you surround yourself with matters.

Where you plant yourself matters.

The environments you choose today will influence the generations that come after you.

God honored Abram's faithfulness and rewarded his obedience.

Genesis 13:14–17 declares:

"The Lord said to Abram after Lot had parted from him, 'Look around from where you are, to the north and south, to the east and west. All the land that you see I will give to you and your offspring forever. I will make your offspring like the dust of the earth... Go, walk through the length and breadth of the land, for I am giving it to you.'"

Now compare that blessing with what happened to Lot.

Genesis 14 tells us:

"They also carried off Abram's nephew Lot and his possessions, since he was living in Sodom."

Notice something important.

Lot was not originally living in Sodom.

He simply settled near it.

Eventually, proximity became captivity.

That lesson deeply challenged me.

Our environments matter more than we often realize.

The people we surround ourselves with, the content we consume, and the places we continually return to all shape our future.

The beautiful part of the story is that Abram rescued Lot.

Likewise, our Heavenly Father allows us to make our own choices, yet He continually pursues us with mercy and grace.

Sometimes God allows us to experience the consequences of our decisions—not to condemn us, but to teach us wisdom.

My encouragement is simple.

Ask God to open your eyes.

Open your ears.

Open your heart to repentance.

His mercy is new every morning, and His grace is sufficient.

We are saved by God's grace through faith in Jesus Christ, and genuine faith produces a life of growing obedience.

That is the lesson I have had to learn.

God's love language is obedience born out of love, not obligation.

Today I am learning to steward my environments, my expectations, and my investments more wisely.

Ask yourself:

Who—or what—is costing you your peace, your purpose, or your intimacy with God?

For me, people-pleasing, pride, and disobedience came at a tremendous cost.

I do not want to live in captivity any longer.

I want to walk in freedom.

As Colossians 3:1 reminds us:

"Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God."

KISS(Keep it Simple & Sanctified)

Prayer Works!

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Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’

Matthew 22:37-39

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