By Robert M.

The Bible tells me that when I invite Jesus Christ into my life, I am invited to become a “new creation.” In 2 Corinthians, Chapter 5, Paul writes, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone; the new has come!” In Christ, I am invited to get rid of the old person, to be reinvented. God promises me a fresh start, a clean slate. Thousands and thousands of people have testified to how God has turned their lives around. He can turn your life around too.

In the Old Testament of the Bible, in the Book of Jeremiah, God said this to a group of people exiled from Jerusalem: “For I know the plans I have for you, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you.” (Chapter 29)

God has a plan for us. And he wants us to prosper. He wants to give us hope and a future. He knows us and treats us as individuals. He can help us find out who we are meant to be. It is in God that we can finally, fully know ourselves.

It doesn’t matter where we’ve been, what we’ve been through, or what we’ve done. Because of Christ, we are forgiven for our mistakes. God cares about where we are right now and where we are going. God wants us to live up to the potential He has planned for us. We are, after all, created in His image, and He wants to help us live up to that image.

This is why He sent the Holy Spirit into our lives, to comfort, to guide, to strengthen and to shape us. The moment that we invite Christ into our lives, we also get the Holy Spirit. They’re something of a package deal. The Book of Acts tells us that we will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on us! (Acts 1:8) Power! Power to change, power to be, power to live!

“For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline.” (2 Tim 1:7). Do you think you don’t have the strength to walk away from something that hurts you, something that makes you weak, something you know you don’t want? Think again. Ask God.

When we reach out, when we ask God to change us, a transformation takes place. The Bible calls it a “renewing of the mind.” You will still be you, but you will be more than you. You will be a better, stronger, wiser version of yourself. In Philippians 4:13, the Apostle Paul says, “I can do everything through him who gives me strength.”
By inviting God to strengthen you, you are opening the world up to yourself. You will be able to do anything, with God’s strength.

You will be able to walk away from things or people who have hurt you or made you suffer. You will have the courage to be who you are supposed to be, a happy, thriving, vibrant individual with a purpose on this earth! The gift is there waiting for you. All you have to do is ask. Tell God that you want to change, and that you want to start today. If not now, when?