Do we dare say it’s officially Spring again? The Midwestern trees and shrubs are showing their desire to burst open once again, and in some places they already have beautiful buds and flowers in abundance. Now if we can just get the weather to cooperate!
Every Easter, the church of Jesus Christ together remembers that loving, unimaginable sacrifice Jesus paid, by dying a criminal’s death on a cross, then being resurrected by the power of God, all to bring eternal redemption to everyone. What a wonderful month of remembrance we have!
It’s interesting to me that as the flowers and the leaves of the trees prepare to burst open, we also celebrate the incredible resurrection of Jesus bursting out from the tomb! God seems to tandem His mighty spiritual miracles with His miracles in creation over and over again. We see the plants and trees which seemed to be dying (last autumn) living again this spring and we are also remembering Jesus being crucified, dying but then also rising again.
It’s a mystery and a miracle that I think is echoed throughout scripture, throughout nature, as well as in our everyday lives. Dying yet Living!
For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for
My sake will find it. – Most assuredly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat
falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it produces much grain
– This is a faithful saying: For if we died with Him, We shall also live with Him.
Matthew 16:25 – John 12:24 – 2 Timothy 2:11
I don’t know about you but I have had many moments where it looked like something I was involved in just seemed to die! The fear, the heartache, the disappointment and dread that I experienced made me question if I would ever make it through. Maybe you have also experienced that in a relationship, a career opportunity, a business venture, or maybe even for your own life or a loved one.
Paul had a similar experience
We think you ought to know, dear brothers and sisters, about the trouble we went through in the province of Asia. We were crushed and overwhelmed beyond our ability to endure,
and we thought we would never live through it. In fact, we expected to die. But as a result,
we stopped relying on ourselves and learned to rely only on God, who raises the dead.
2 Corinthians 1:8-9
It seems that many times we have to get to the end of ourselves before God can do all that He wants to do in our lives. God is excellent in taking the end of something in your life and giving you a new beginning. Sometimes the door to the past has to be completely shut before God can open a new door into your future.
You may be facing the end of something and bombarded with fears and concerns about tomorrow. We know what that is like. But let me encourage you that God has already made provision for you on the other side of your situation. God sees the end all the way from the beginning, and He is at work getting things prepared for you and for your good.
It is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose. Philippians 2:13
Of course things may not always turn out the way you expect, but you can be assured that if you will stick close with God, He will take care of you, lead & guide you, and prepare you for the next season of your life.
God will take our end and birth a new beginning!
Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live. John 11:25
Here’s to New Beginnings,
