Counselor’s Corner: Do You Need a Fresh Start?

Has life been challenging for you and you feel you need a do-over? You may have difficulties in every area of your life-relational, occupational, mental/emotional, and even spiritual. Your way of doing things is no longer working, but you don’t know what to do differently either to make things better. You have begged and pleaded with God to answer your prayers and yet He seems so silent at times.

Reflect and ponder: Is your life working for you? Do you need a fresh start in life, but you don’t know how to get that? Are you frustrated because you have tried to “hit the resend button” and instead of moving forward you go backwards?

Counselor’s Corner:

How to start fresh in your life:

1.      Stop begging and pleading with God about your situations, He has heard you. Instead, get up every morning and worship God and sit quietly before Him-just sit at His feet not trying to get God to answer your prayers. Yes, it is good to pray, but after sitting at His feet first and allowing the Holy Spirit to speak to you first.

2.      Let God have the battle you are in. Rest in Papa God that He IS COMING THROUGH for you, maybe not when you think He should or how you think He should come through. After you have worshiped and given God the praise He deserves, sit back and relax and watch Him come through.

3.      Get rid of your to-do list for God! He wants a relationship with you above anything you could do for Him. Sit with Abba more and let Him love on you a lot! When you allow Abba to love on you, it will be so much easier to love on others. Know His love first! Your first priority is not serving more and doing more, but spending time with your Daddy!

4.      Renew your mind by disciplining your thought life. Take every thought captive into the obedience of Christ. Don’t let your mind agree with the thoughts of the enemy, you do not have to accept every thought as truth! Speak blessings over your life not curses. Speak blessings over your enemies.

5.      Release everyone who has hurt or offended you.

6.      Maintain peace at all times and in every situation. Divine peace is warfare! When you keep your peace, the enemy is confused. Confuse the enemy with your constant peace.

7.      Begin walking by faith and not by sight, and call into existence those things that are not as though they are.

8.      Forgive yourself, completely! God has forgiven you, so you must follow what God has done.

9.      Love yourself and begin to nurture yourself. Be good to yourself. Don’t beat yourself up for past mistakes and don’t condemn yourself for the past-it over, so move on! No more self-hate, self-condemnation, and no more living in past regrets.

10.  Humble yourself. Admit you can’t do anything without God and you need Him desperately. Keep a humble, gentle and peaceful spirit with all that you encounter, never let anyone cause you to react negatively (greater is He that is in you than he that is in this world). Let no one stir your emotions to anger, offense, irritation, or bitterness.

11.  Get rid of all complaining, murmuring, criticizing, faultfinding and negativity. Be thankful and grateful every day, instead of rehearsing your complaints try instead to say what your blessings are.

12.  Accept what has changed in your life. Your life may not have what it had years ago, but dwelling on what is missing will cause you stay stuck. Accept your life, not wanting someone else’s life. Stop all comparisons to others, your neighbors, your coworkers, your family, etc. Embrace fully who you are and accept yourself! Be content with the lot that you have been given.

13.  Laugh more, dance in the rain and stop to smell the roses-ENJOY the life that God has given you!

14.  Give over your reigns to Christ. He is in control and trust His ways are good and best for you. Let go of all control.

15.  Wipe your slate clean-no more rummaging through your past and torturing yourself with all your failures, only take with you into your fresh start what worked and was a success (leave everything else behind).

MEDITATE ON THESE SCRIPTURES:

Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert. Isaiah 43:19

And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit. I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. Ezekiel 36:26

New Beginnings-Change is on the Horizon

For many, you are sensing a change coming, but not sure exactly what that change is. Some things in your life that has not produced fruit and life are being cut away now. This can be a bit scary, removing the comforts in your life, but it is only to make room for what lies ahead. Some things in your life no longer serve a purpose like they once did. Be obedient to what God is showing you to let go of. Do not fear the unknown, and do not try and figure out what will come next. God has many of His people in a season where He is saying, “Be still before me and not doing before me.” So many are running from one thing to the next, but missing God along the way. God’s deepest desire for you now, is to rest in Him and rebuild your relationship with Him. Nothing else is more important than sitting at the feet of Jesus. Many have become wearied and worn-out in the last couple of years and need time to be with the Father to regain strength and new perspectives.

God wants to pour out His special anointing on you, but this can only be done in His presence and not trying to fix and solve everyone else’s problems. It is time to rest and be still. No more striving and figuring out what to do. Simple be with the Father. You may be thinking, “How can I just rest and be when there are people to help?” But how can you help with an empty cup? You know if your cup is empty because you are not giving out of the overflow but giving out of your strength, which leaves you tired and frustrated. When you operate in the overflow, there is abundance.

So God desires a new beginning for you. He has seen your struggles and He has seen you trying to minister to others while hurting. God says I do not desire you to give out of brokenness, but out of an overflow. This may be frightening to you, to not help, to not serve, but it is not forever. It is until you and the Father are one again. Somehow your relationship with Jesus, your first love, has become tainted, and you have believed that He just cared about how much you served Him. Yes, Jesus does want us to serve Him, but He also cares so much more about our relationship with Him. His desire is to see you whole again and on fire for the things of God. Sin, hardships, and difficult circumstances have entered your life causing you to be lukewarm with God. You still serve Christ in ministry, but your heart is far from it. God knows that, and wants to commune with you and bring you back to your first love, Jesus Christ.

His plans are good for you and your new beginning will be with Jesus at the center. You will have a renewed trust and faith in God, and you will be fit for what God has called you to do. So do not worry or fret of what next, just release anything God shows you, and embrace being with God. He does not want nor expect anything else from you now. You will know clearly when He has opened the door you are to walk through, it will not be by force or by your flesh; but by the flow of the Holy Spirit.