Restoring the Time

In December I will turn 42 years old.  As I continue to grow older, contemplation of years gone by increasingly take a larger portion of my conscious thought.  Certainly not taking my life for granted, I am hopeful there are an equal amount of years ahead of me as behind.  Generally speaking, the previous forty-one years have been lived striving for what I want, what makes me happy, and never achieving those desires with any level of sustained success.  For whatever momentary period of happiness I may have experienced, the pain and suffering at my own hand was ten-fold.  During and upon release from incarceration, I could see the change in who I am.  God Almighty used the years of isolation from the rest of the world to remake and remold me into the spiritual being I was but didn't recognize.  Now fraught with regret over lost opportunities, lost time, and damaged or severed relationships, my heart and soul now ache with the desire for healing, renewal, and a re-birth of all things.  In the Holy Scriptures, Revelation 22:5 states, "He who was seated on the throne said, 'I am making everything new!'"  Also, the Apostle Paul writes in II Corinthians 5:17-18, "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!  All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men's sins against them."  Each and every day I am trusting in the Lord to use me in the performance of His Will, not mine.  My will brought an unmanageable life and squandered talents on earthly pleasures.  Of course my life isn't perfect as I am a sinful man prone to not do the things of God.  However, I am encouraged by the prophet Joel.  In Joel 2:25 the Lord speaks, "I will repay you for the years the locusts have eaten..."  Praise and worship to the God who reigns on his heavenly throne.  Thank you for redeeming me for your glory and to discharge Your Will on earth.

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