Find New Life: Grace Found

The ebb and flow of days filter into my consciousness as the memories of the cycle of living are rehearsed.

For me, memories mostly consist of hearts whose love left deep-rooted paths into my own. Isn’t that how it is supposed to be? We are meant to leave an imprint upon the living, a tell-tale sign we were there.

Sometimes the signs that remain leave a broken trail behind, I am sure we all have them. I know we do. Brokenness leads us to seek after new life over and over, like a record that continues to skip or the static that used to roll over the TV screen when the station ended programming for the evening.

These trails we follow seem to lead us unceremoniously from one place to another, but do they really? I read in 139th chapter of the book of Psalms that this God who holds the universe in His hand has also known my traveling. He has known my path and is acquainted with my ways, it says in verse 3. It struck me then, as it does even now, that God would have time to be acquainted with me. His sovereignty is revealed in verse 16 to remind us our wandering comes as no surprise to the Ancient of Days.

“Your eyes saw my unformed substance, and in Your book all the days [of my life] were written before ever they took shape, when as yet there were none of them.”

Beyond the Safe Place

And the realization of this truth awakens a new hope within. New living emerges when truth touches our hearts and we are freed to accept its offered gift. With it chains of bondage are broken, replaced by love’s promise.

Fear often became an obstacle that kept me from moving forward. I willingly chose to stay as close as I could to the safe road. Rejection holds a tight grip upon the heart that doesn’t know its worth. Even now that I know truth, I find myself often testing the water’s turbulence before I venture out into the ocean beyond.

There are times when I bound in feet first and eyes closed, trusting that something good will come out of the blind leap of faith. Yet, when the heart is involved, we carefully calculate, instinctively shielding the tender places, considering heavily the ultimate cost before we take the risk. Thankfully Christ chooses to pursue us beyond the safe places.

My need for acceptance always got in the way of my purpose to be uniquely me. Fear kept me from finding hope. I chose to please others rather than please the One who had seen my path and measured my days.

One Moment of Trust

When the desire to surrender surpassed the urgency to hold tightly to fear of the unknown, I let go. Embracing hope, I took the hand that that offered life, recreated and new by the entrance of One.

One moment was all it took, instantly changed, bound for something more. For the first time I understood just a portion of this grace thing that would become my passion.

Like a butterfly that emerges from a cocoon bursting with miraculous hope, freedom sealed my soul and broke the chains kept bound by fear. In Christ, we are promised the blessing of freedom from the broken, “ the old has passed away, behold all things have become new.” (2Cor.5:17) Hope released me in love to find the new life His truth prepared me to live.

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Dawn Boyer is an author, writer and speaker. She’s authored The Home Educator's Guide to the Science Fair and A Journey in Liberty: Studying the US Constitution. You can find on Facebook and at Journeys In Grace, where this first appeared.

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Find New Life: Feeling lost? God invites you to inhabit new life. Wherever you find yourself on the journey, God is always calling us to something even more. The bible reassures us that God is doing a new thing (Isaiah 43:19), and yet we sometimes pass over the new thing, in search of the next thing. But what if what God has for you is in the letting go of what you know and what you've already done? To find life, we must first lose it (Matthew 10:39). But what does that mean, really? Join us for this series, Find New Life. Together, let's find our footing. Let's embrace the new thing God has for each of us.

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Post featured by David Rupert. Photo by Patricia Hunter. Design by Jennifer Dukes Lee.