Category: Grace Insights

I wanted to share a wonderful testimony with you.  This is from Myra Woods who is one of our Board Members here at NLD.  We had asked her to write up her story of how she came to understand the exchanged life and the impact that Grace has made on her life.  When I read this earlier today I just had to give you a sneak preview.  This is hopefully going to be in our Summer Newsletter that is going out in a few days.

Dana

Strivers Anonymous. If there were such an organization, I would be a member, for this is my confession, “My name is Myra Woods and I am a Striver.” But, thank God, a recovering striver. Jesus rescued me from my pitiful self-efforts at living the Christian life and He set me free. “How?,” you ask? When I came to the end of my rope and He offered to exchange His life for mine. I accepted.

 

For me, to live was to try harder, to grow greater, to understand fuller, and to doubt deeper. I was forever striving to control and desperately hold on to those things that kept me safe. Combine these efforts with a concept of God who wouldn’t rescue me from my frustrations and fears when I so needed Him to. Do you see a recipe for a life full of anxiety, fear and panic attacks? Well, that’s what my life was.

 

I was emotionally exhausted. I was trying to hang on by my fingernails to keep from falling into an abyss – an abyss of darkness. One of my most challenging emotional journeys was when I was on an airplane. Once, I single handedly kept a 747 in the air between Denver and Atlanta using all the emotional strength I had. I worked harder than the pilot and co-pilot combined. On arrival to Atlanta, I was exhausted! That was my life. The only way I know to describe it is: I was emotionally exhausted.

 

Three times over the past two decades I sought professional help. I credit two Christian counselors who saw me through some tough times and helped me survive not only my own clinical depression but my husband’s as well. I left their care better able to cope and thankful for their guidance. It was not until I attended a Grace Life Conference, however, that lasting change happened.

 

After listening for two days about how the flesh exhibits itself I began to see clearly just how I had been striving so hard to keep it together, to make my faith stronger, to not doubt, to grasp truth, to always do the right thing. Whatever my hand found to do I was going to strive to do it….myself. But all it got me was a life full of anxiety, fear and depression. Surely there was an easier way to live the Christian life.

 

Fear had driven my life for so long, and I was desperate to know what else God had to offer. I was afraid to surrender it all for fear of what God might do. I had been unable to let go while my fingernails were becoming weaker and weaker.

 

The instructor at the Grace Life Conference quoted scripture after scripture about who we were in Christ and what Jesus had done for us and in us. I realized I was not living out of that identity but out of my own strength. That night God offered to exchange His strength for mine.

 

Isaiah 40:31 says, “Those who wait on the Lord will gain (exchange) new strength; They will mount up with wings (literally, sprout wings) like eagles, They will run and not get tired, They will walk and not become weary.”

 

The instructor guided us to a page in our workbook entitled “The Selfer’s Prayer” and began to read. He encouraged us to go home and get before the Lord with this prayer. I couldn’t wait. Tears began to flow and the Holy Spirit flooded my heart with the knowledge that I needed to repent of trying to live the Christian life in my own strength, to quit striving and start trusting. I literally lost it. It was very loud in my head and in my heart as I said the words of that prayer through my tears. If my life had depended on it I could not have waited to get home to do business with the Lord. What happened that night is a significant benchmark in my spiritual journey.

 

2 Corinthians 5:17 says, “Therefore if any man be in Christ he is a new creature. Behold old things have passed away and all things have become new.” Something new happened in me that night. There was a release – a realization that God was truly good and I could trust Him no matter what. I could let go and know He would catch me. Were these new truths for me? No. I knew Jesus lived in my heart through the Holy Spirit, but somewhere I had missed the part where He was actually going to live the Christian life as me.

 

One of my favorite verses is,

 

“I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless, I live, yet not I but Christ lives in me. And the life I live in the flesh, I live by faith of the Son of God who loves me and gave Himself for me.” Galatians 2:20

 

Since that weekend five years ago the grace message “Christ in YOU” has flowed like a river through me. I have the promise that He will make all things new in every area I learn to trust Him with and that He loves and accepts me just as I am – all because of who He has made me to be – His holy, pure and righteous child.

 

Not only do I experience a security I had never known, but I am learning to enjoy an intimacy with Him that I never dreamed possible. I have the hope that where ever I am, what ever I experience, whomever I need to deal with, Jesus is there with me to live His life through me.

 

There are days I feel like something new is happening, that there is something new to share with a friend about the Lord, but I can’t really point to any one thing. Everyday is just new because He’s in it.

 

The message of grace continues to change my life. Knowing I am completely accepted, loved beyond my comprehension, and will never be abandoned strengthens my faith to rest in the power of the very life of Jesus living in me.

 

This is the grace message. This is the grace message that New Life Design teaches. It can change your life. It did mine.

 

I serve on the Board of Directors of New Life Design because I believe in the transforming power of the Word of God in a person’s life. I believe in the emphasis on God’s grace in the counseling ministry. I believe in the ministry of the Holy Spirit to guide, to heal and restore a person’s faith. This is what the ministry of New Life Design is all about.

 

Jesus invites us – no, He pleads with us, “Come to Me those who are weary (who work to exhaustion) and heavy laden and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your soul (mind, will and emotions).” Matthew 11:28-29

 

Well, just before I began to write this post I got a notice saying that my 20 year class reunion is going to be held this summer. Ouch! That really bits! I can’t believe it has been that long! I know….some of you out there are saying, “Welcome to my world!” and others are saying, “You’re only as old as you feel!” and I know some of you are saying, “Dana, get over it!” etc….” Yes, I understand all that but it is just the thought that 20 years have flown by. You may laugh, but I never thought I would live this long, but here we are 20 years later!

I am reminded that a lot of pressure comes with class reunions. You know what I mean?? People want to be able to say that they have accomplised something over the last 20 years, that their lives have counted for something. Some are still trying to gain that love and acceptance from others. They still have not learned that those same old fleshly strategies don’t work. I wonder how many of my classmates have just decided today to go on that diet or exercise plan? They want to show up to impress others with how they look feeling like they have to look a certain way so others will love and accept them and think well of them. Their performance and appearance must be at top notch perfection! Wow….I’m tired just thinking about it all.

Quite fankly, the “old me” use to live this way. I spent so much time, energy and resources trying to impress, measure up, be perfect, look perfect, perform perfectly….get the “perfect picture”?? I exhausted myself and when I took an evaluation at how I was doing, I always came up with the same old thoughts – it was never good enough – I was never good enough. Finally, one day just a few years ago God had put me in the “perfect” sceniro to show me that my fleshly stratagies just wouldn’t work and I was harming myself with the continued efforts to try to make them work. My “perfect” sceniro happened to be the wonderful world of “church work”. My first few attempts seemed to work pretty well so when I moved to Georgia over 12 years ago I continued to pull out the same stratagies to get my needs met and would you believe it when I said I hit a brick wall?? I couldn’t do anything right, keep anybody happy or be successful in anything I did. I was plegged with problems, mishaps, shortcomings, failures you name it! Well, it was over the course of several years that God led me to that place of brokenness. I kept trying to tell him I had been broken enough through all the death and tragedy in my family over recent years but, oh no….I had not been willing to SEE and release those fleshly stratagies that I held on to for LIFE. God had to prove to me that my way of finding LIFE and getting my needs met just did not cut it. So, I crumbled and when I did….ironically….I found that LIFE and identity that I was so desperately looking for. I found the love and acceptance of Father that I so desperatly needed.

Now, I can honestly say I am experiencing more and more freedom from peoples opinions and their thoughts about me. I am living in that “sweet spot” of life where I do what I do because that is what Father ask of me and He has put the desires in my heart to do those things that he has created me to do and it glorifies Him. That is what the sum total of our lives ought to be about anyway….Glorifying Him and Him alone (not ourselves).

For all my fellow “people pleasers” out there – this is the one time that I can truly say….”the grass really is greener over here!” Come on over and join me!

Dana

“Wouldn’t it be awful to spend all your life trying to make God an apple pie, only to die and discover He never liked apple pie?”              ~Peter Lord

This quote really caught my attention because for many years I thought that what God wanted from me was to try my very best to live the Christian life–to avoid sin, serve in the church, read my Bible, share my faith, pray daily, give, love, be like Jesus, etc.  Boy, was I wrong!!!  In the past couple of years God has shown me that’s not at all what He wants.  He wants me to simply rest and enjoy the life of Christ that’s within me. (Matt 11:28-30; Jn 10:10; Gal 2:20; Col 2:6)  When I try my best to live the Christian life, that’s being indepedent of Him.  He wants me to admit that I can’t do it and depend on Him to live His live out through me.  The only person who can live the Christian life is Christ!!

I read in a devotional book by Bill & Anibel Gillham this morning that depending on Him means letting Him live through me any way He chooses.  As I thought about this, I remembered how I got frustrated yesterday when circumstances didn’t fall in place smoothly the way I wanted them to.  If I’m going to depend on Him, I must first give up my perceived rights–the right to have things happen my way, the right to be in control of my circumstances, the right to…, and then accept His way.  So, I have two choices:

1.  do it myself/hold onto my way——->things don’t work out——->inner conflict & frustration

2.  give up rights/accept God’s way——>His way always works——->success & peace

Here’s the paradox:  What we think will bring us success, peace, contenment, fulfillment (doing it my way) actually leads to conflict & frustration, and what we think will cause conflict & frustration (giving up my way) actually leads to success, peace, contenment, and fulfillment.

Rebecca

I just listened to an excellent sermon entitled, Living FROM God Instead of Living FOR God.  WOW!!  It was GREAT!!  The speaker talked about how we often try to DO all these things to be pleasing to God, but they are in fact dead end roads.  I have been down some of those roads myself and ended up in much frustration.  He then gives a clear presentation of depending on Christ to live through us.  I highly recommend listening to it, and it’s FREE.  You can download the MP3 at www.crosslifebooks.com

Rebecca

Rejection – what an awful word.  We don’t like to talk about it, teach about it or even read it.  We don’t even like to readily admit that we all have experienced it in some form or another.  It is humiliating to our flesh to admit rejection.  I, like many others had suffered in silence from rejection and the awful fear that it creates.  I know in my own life that I have feared rejection because to be rejected would say to me that I was “worthless” or not “good enough” and I need to be loved and accepted by others in order to feel secure and significant.  What about you??  Do you fear rejection?  If so, ask yourself, “If I were rejected, what would that say about me?”  Chances are that you will discover your very own “False Belief” (as we like to call it).  So…what is the truth?  For myself – I found truth in I John 4.  I had read it many times and wondered about its full meaning.  I sensed in my spirit that there was much more there but I could not see it….Until….I read it in light of God’s wonderful grace.  In verse 7 John begins talking about loving one another and that love springs from God.  He goes on to explain the wonderful message of God sending his own Son to be the propitiation for our sins.  Verse 12 then shares a unique truth.  He says that if we love one another God abides in us and His love is brought to completion in us.  Brought to completion means brought to its full maturity, runs its full course and is perfected in us.  If you go on a few verses you find verse 18 that says “there is no fear in love, but full grown love turns fear out of doors and expels every trace of terror.  For fear brings with it the thought of punishment, and so he who is afraid has not reached the full maturity of love” (Amplified Bible) – meaning he is not yet grown into love’s complete perfection.  I believe what Father wanted me to understand is that when I receive and embrace God’s full love for me; He meets all my needs for security and significance.  This in turn frees me to allow Christ to love and serve others through me because I don’t need anything in return from them – I am free.  When I seek to get those needs of security and significance met by others I am not free but I am bound to them.  If they do not reciprocate in like fashion I end up hurt and feeling rejected.  Thanks be to our Lord Jesus Christ – I don’t have to live this way anymore!  Isn’t it great that God IS our New Life Design!!

Dana

Some of you may know that I have “bit the bullet” so to speak and signed up to run a marathon.  Yes, I did say marathon….and yes, I am very well aware that a marathon means running 26.2 miles.  I know…I am probably crazy but this is something that I have always dreamed of doing athletically but never thought it could become a reality. 

I have been progressing very well in our training according to my partners who seem pleased with our progress.  On Saturday mornings we do our “long runs” and this past Saturday 16 miles was on the agenda.  I was hoping for another great run like I had the previous Saturday when we did 15, but it started to fall apart at the end.  I began experiencing joint pain in my right hip and knee.  I knew it was not an injury so to speak but my body adjusting to the distance that we were running.  I finished the run but was very concerned about the joint pain and wondering if my body was going to let me continue training. 

Earlier this week I made a trip to GNC for Glucosamine/Chondroitin etc….  All week long I would attempt to pray about this because I really want to be able to continue my training and run the marathon on January 13th but there was this guilt that would come up.  There was this feeling of needing to avoid God on the issue. 

When Thursday rolled around I got up late and in my haste to get my “workout” in (because you absolutely can not miss during marathon training) and get to the office, I did not have my quiet time.  Well, I got to the office only to realize that I had a lot to do, a denist appointment to squeez in at 12:30, appointments to get ready for and I just felt ill prepared for the day.  When I did get to the dentist at 12:35 they infomed me that my appointment was at 12:10 and they couldn’t work me in.   It was ok with me because who likes going to the dentist anyway and I felt unprepared to even see the dentist! 

I was telling Rebecca how I felt that afternoon and she started asking me some of our our most familiar questions that I ask clients…one of which was, “do you feel out of control?”.  My response was no – because I know I was never in control to begin with – God is – but after thinking about that – I realized – I don’t feel out of control but I feel condemned! 

After some honest soul searching, here is what I felt like God spoke to me about…There were these thoughts in my head like, “This pain you are feeling is God punishing you because you didn’t totally pray about running this marathon…you just thought about it for awhile and signed yourself up.  God is not going to let you run this marathon now.  He is certaintly not going to minister through you today because you didn’t spend time with him this morning.  Who do you think you are anyway trying to point these folks to God when you didn’t even spend time with Him this morning!”  Wow…how foreign is that??  Now, I knew in my mind that this could not be true, but I was afraid to face it until this morning on the way to the office.  When I did have a quiet time this morning I still had my guard up, but driving in to the office this morning my guard began to drop a little as I thought about things.  All the sudden I had these thougths:  “Dana, with regards to running, what have you always wanted to do? (run a marathon).  At any other time of your life was there presented to you the right time and opportunity to train and run one? (no).  You thought it was so impossible to even seriously pray about running one – oh you have mentioned it a few times – but you have never seriously prayed about it but, because I love you – I have provided the friends to train with, and the time and opportunity to run one.  I am giving you the desires of your heart.” Immediately I thought of Psalms 37:4 “Delight yourself in the LORD; and He will give you the desires of your heart.”  Wow…there is a change in thought!  Because I have delighted myself in Him and He loves me, He gives me the desires of my heart.  Now remember – we have to keep things in perspective here and interpret this verse correctly.  God has not provided me a 4 door Jeep Wrangler yet – so lets be careful!!

By faith I do believe I will complete this training and by faith I do believe I will cross that finish line.  Will the process be painful…probably…but will God see me through…You bet!  BTW…the same is true of our spiritual journey.  Hebrews says to run the race set before us keeping our eyes focused on the author and PERFECTER of our faith.  Will you and I complete this spiritual training…yes! (Phil 1:4)  Will the process be painful…probably, but He said in Corinthians that His GRACE would be sufficient for you and me! 

Looking forward to seeing you at the Finish Line!

Dana

I want to offically say, “Welcome to New Life Design”!  We are glad that you are checking out our site.  It was four years ago that God began speaking to me about the vision of a grace-based discipleship coaching and teaching ministry in our area.  As we have followed Christ and His timing with this, He has brought all of this together so perfectly. 

I want to use part of my time on the blog to share with you insights that Father has shown me with regards to us having the faith to follow Him wherever He leads, seeing His plan and purposes unfold and knowing our place in all of it.

If you would have told me years ago that I would be doing what I am doing today and that I would sense an inner faith deep within me allowing me to walk in confidence, I would not have believed you.  I am constantly amazed at how the Holy Spirit working within us will bring us to places that we never thought possible.  It is surely the work of God and not anything of ourselves.

Through a maintained relationship with God I have found that He reveals Himself in three specific ways:  He reveals His Character to us, He reveals His Purposes to us, and then He reveals His ways to us.  Through seeing His Character we learn who He is and our level of trust in Him begins to grow.  As our trust begins to take shape He begins to show us His purposes.  It is here that we realize that often His purposes are quite different from ours.  It is only by growing in our understanding of His character and purposes that we can begin to understand His ways. 

Often when one experiences anger towards God it is because they have never been discipled and taught the character and purposes of God.  I am sure most of us have been there at some time in our lives.  Although, even when we have been learning a proper concept of God our circumstances can still send us reeling emotionally and experiencing many unanswered questions.  However, it will be that sure foundation of knowing more of who God is that will stabilize us over time and as the fog begins to clear we will see more clearly.  One word of caution here – I am in no means saying that we will always understand God.  He is way to big for that!  What I am saying is that as we come to know Him deeper through His character we come to love and trust Him more.  So, when our world is rocking with shock and heartache, we have a firm grasp in Christ and can depend on Him and trust Him during the storm.  When it all clears, there we see our faithful Father continuing to care for us and provide.  Yes, this is easier said than done but as children of God we have this precious priviledge as apart of our spiritual inheritance that the apostle Paul speaks of.  So, in our faith journey it is crucial that we begin to see a proper concept of who God is, His purposes and His ways.

An example of this is found in the gospel accounts of the Disciples and their journey with Christ.  They were completely confused and distraught over His arrest, mock trials and subsequent crucifixion.  Their world was rocking and they hid in fear desending deep in their grief.  They still had not grasped the deeper understanding of who Jesus was, what His purposes were and the way in which they were to be carried out.  As you can see for yourself in the book of Acts when they did catch a radical understanding of what Jesus was all about and why He came, it completely altered their actions and requests.  Again, it was the Holy Spirit within them (given at Pentecost) that revealed truth and presented the clear picture of who Messiah was, what His purpose was and how that was to be accomplished.  This truth led to them fulfilling God purposes for their individual lives which invovled the advancement of the Kingdom of God and our understanding of salvation today. 

My prayer is that each of us would grasp a better understanding of the character of God, His purposes in our generation and the ways in which He is calling us to partner with Him in accomplishing the advancement of His Kingdom.  It really is all about Him.

Hebrews 12:1-3 “Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance, and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfector of our faith who for the joy set before Him endured the cross despising the shame and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.  For consider Him who endured such hostility by sinners against Himself, so that you may not grow weary and lose heart.”

Stay tuned for more on Faith and Hebrews 10 and 11!!

Enjoying The New Design,

Dana

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cyFxArMeRDI]

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5-WZ4WoZvPc]