Describe one positive change you have made in your life.

At least 3-4 times a month, I try to share a word of encouragement and wisdom with my adult children and grandchildren. I do this as a reminder and example of why I trust God, follow Christ, and continually invest in learning about how to become the new creature God says I am through salvation. [2 Corinthians 5:17; Galatians 6:15]

The positive change I have made in my life is when, in 2007, I literally stopped watching TV … no more CSI, no more Law and Order: SVU … and I began to start and end every day with reading scriptures, writing down what stood out to me, and praying!

At that time in my life I desperately wanted to stop smoking. I had tried and failed several times. But in 2007, it became a huge weight in my spirit because I better understood I was damaging the dwelling place of the Holy Spirit (my temple).

It wasn’t long before it became clear to me that there was Power in Prayer and that God could fix anything – even ME – as long as I invited him into the situation!

Time after time, as I memorized scripture and prayed to God – sometimes praying back to him the verses of his Word – I grew to understand that the level of intimacy I desired to have with God could only be built through the amount of undivided time I spent with him. And the dynamics of the relationship has grown into a spiritual marriage I don’t ever want to divorce.

This positive change came because of prayer, but also as a result of what it says in James 4:2 – Ye lust, and have not: ye kill, and desire to have, and cannot obtain: ye fight and war, yet YE HAVE NOT, BECAUSE YE ASK NOT.

Many are still fighting a past where there is an emotional, spiritual room filled with garbage and baggage. The door to this room is open and still collecting additional garbage and trash. But, it is a room that should be cleared out, the door closed & locked, and the key thrown into the bottom of the ocean so it can’t be refilled with garbage!

God can fix and/or lessen the consequences of the errors our parents made in their lives that may have adversely affected us. God can fix, change or totally remove the thorns and baggage deposited in our soul from the errors we have experienced from our own hands, and of others. God can turn every disappointing and hurtful situation into something that works to our good. [Romans 8:28]

God has a recourse plan for every bad choice, disobedient act, and any complacency that attempts to hinder us from staying connected to God through his Word and Prayer. God, alone, can alter the degree of the consequences for our sin.

But NOTHING can/will CHANGE in any of our situations UNTIL WE INVITE GOD INTO IT!