Welcome to my blog. Today is the 4th day of October. Wow….when did we get this close to Christmas? Don’t get me wrong, I love fall. It is one of my favorite seasons. But it also means the year is slowly coming to an end and then we will start a new year of unknowns in just a few short months. With the new year it gives us a chance to renew our resolutions, if you do that sort of thing. But this isn’t where I was going with this post today. I want to talk about the word Renew and what it means. In the dictionary, there are several things that the word renew means but the one that sticks with me is the meaning “to make new again”. We are all sinners saved by grace. And as life throws its punches, we tend to let it get us down and not focus on God. We start focusing on our surroundings. But Psalms 51:10 says “Create in me a pure heart, O God, and RENEW a steadfast spirit within me.” I could go so many directions with this verse but I’m going to stick to my topic. God has given us this verse to let us know that although we are sorely imperfect, He has the power to make us new again. Did you get that? He can make us NEW AGAIN! Isn’t that an amazing thought? That is so comforting to know that when we stray, and when we let the world’s distractions cloud our vision then we have this little verse that we can pray. This one little verse that gets God’s attention and catapults Him in to action.
Renew is an action verb. God is all about actions. Let’s discuss action for a moment…. 2 Kings Chapter 5 starts off talking about Naaman. He was a mighty warrior that was stricken with leprosy. Jump to verse 10 and Elisha sends a messenger to tell Naaman to go and wash in Jordan seven times, and thy flesh shall come again to thee, and thou shalt be clean. But like us, Naaman wanted instant results. He didn’t want to work for his miracle and he didn’t want to wait for his miracle. He expected Elisha to come out to him and wave his hand and he would be healed. Naaman had it all planned in his head how he would get his healing. Like us, Naaman was trying to do things his own way and got mad when Elisha didn’t do it. As the scripture continues, Naaman questioned why he couldn’t just dip in some of the other rivers. Isn’t this just like us today? Always wanting the easy way out, the shortcut, the path of least resistance. But in verse 14 Naaman does go to Jordan and dips seven times and guess what happened…. He got his healing….he was RENEWED! His skin no longer had the awful leprosy sores but it was instead as a child’s skin. So think about a child’s skin…..smooth, soft, no scars or blemishes….and now it was Renewed. When Naaman followed Elishas instructions that were given to him from God, then and only then did Naaman receive what he was promised.
In closing, the fall season is the beginning of the cooler weather, leaves falling, the summer hay is bailed, the pools are all closed for winter and we know that soon the branches will be bare and the grass will die. But come spring time, all the dead grass, trees and flowers start to awaken. The frogs start croaking in the evenings, the rain comes and washes the deadness of Winter away. The water removes the leprosy and Renews the season and in turn, gives life to many things.
God Bless……Chandelly
alwaysacountrygirl 