Start Again?

Do you ever feel like a plastic bag, drifting through the wind, wanting to start again? Aha! Sounds familiar? Katy Perry’s Firework right? Yes it is! I think I’ve felt the same…there are times where I want to fly high, soar high like an eagle and leave everything behind. 

Have you ever felt the same? The same feelings when you’ve made a mistake, felt bad, embarrassed, guilty, unhappy with the result, frustrated and all you’ve wanted to do is ride a time machine and then go back to the starting line. As if something never happened and as if you never made a mistake. But that won’t happen. Time machine isn’t real and what’s only real is the fact that all those things happened and sometimes things just happens. 

I felt a little bit frustrated when things are getting tough and also when things aren’t going my way. Who would be happy when you want to do something but you can’t do it because you can’t? Yung tipong yun lang naman ang gusto mong gawin sa buhay mo pero hindi mo magawa. And minsan naman, ayaw mo ng gawin yun pero paulit ulit mo pa ring nagagawa.

Last week, I’ve talked to a friend. Nag open siya ng mga struggles niya and one of her struggle is yung paulit ulit niyang paggawa ng kasalanan. (And I think hindi lang siya ang may gaanoong struggle.) We, as human, has a sinful nature, and we struggle with sin (Romans 7:18). That even though we do want to worship, we feel cold. We want to be holy and we fall short of the holiness we long for. We want to love and we say hurtful things. We want to walk in peace and we feel anxiety. We want to be pure in thought and impurity bombards our minds. (Romans 7:23-24) But having a sinful nature isn’t an excuse for us to sin and to sin and to sin until death. What we need is the help of the Holy Spirit. Being free from sin isn’t like as easy as taking a bath and then….tadah!!!!! I am cleansed. (I’ve done that kind of thing many times. May kasama pang prayer… na habang tumutulo ang tubig sa shower kasamang malilinis din ako sa lahat ng nagawang kasalanan ko. Pero hindi ganun yun.) We need the Holy Spirit to lead us and help us to the process of our deliverance. 

 Everyday is a process and everyday we must learn how to kill sin. Sabi ko nga before sa twitter…AWAY na kung AWAY… at ano ang pang laban natin? It is the Word of God. Psalm 119:11 says “I have hidden Your Word in my heart that I may not sin against You.” God’s Word is our shield. It will help us to take courage as we meditate on it day and night. It helps us to love others so that we may neglect hurting them. It encourages us to live a healthy life. And if you have HIS Word in your heart, it feels like, NASAYO NA ANG LAHAT. 

The Word being hidden doesn’t mean it was unseen. ‘Coz when you have hidden God’s Word in your heart it will grow until you cannot contain it anymore…and when you can’t contain it…you will then share that Word to others. So, you won’t need a time machine to go back to the starting point coz’ you can have a new one. A new fulfilled life, satisfied, guilt-free and happy life. 

And as John Piper says “When God makes all things new, he will make us spiritually and morally as pure as flawless crystal, he will give us a body like the body of his glory, he will renovate all creation to take all futility and evil and pain out of it, and finally he himself will come to us and let us see his face. And so forever and ever we will live with pure hearts and glorious bodies on a new earth in the presence and the glory of our heavenly Father.”

 "Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God's law, but in my sinful nature a slave to the law of sin." -Romans 7:25