Photos: Top - the woods I love to walk through; Bottom - mountains near home
Spring has come and everything is waking up. It's time to awaken. It's time to awaken from the nightmares of condemnation and guilt and separation and wake up to the truth that we are accepted and righteous and one with God! I've lived too long in the wintry lands of mental anguish and self-condemnation. I've suffered too long from those dark dreams that God is distant or uncaring, disappointed or angry. That there is always something more I need to "do" to get close to Him.
Time to wake up! Birds are singing, the grass shoots up, the trees bud and early flowers bloom! Skies clear and the gentle breeze replaces the shivery cold we had felt too long. Time to awaken! Awaken to the new life that has been ours since the day we first believed. All this time we have never been alone, never been apart from Him. We don't need to do something to get closer, for we are IN Him - IN! He is not angry or uncaring but madly in love with us! He has been our Dearest Friend all along and He ever will be.
This is the real world. The wintry world of cold and dark was not true reality. LIFE is our true reality, the season and country we now dwell in. Let's enjoy our beautiful Lover and Friend! Let's forget about the sins, the guilt, the "shoulds", the pressure to perform, for all that has been left behind. Now we awaken to the real life that is ours forever, free from sin and shame and law's demands, free to live, to love, to be beloved!
Plants don't wake themselves up; God awakens them. It is the same with us - we don't have to struggle to drive confusion away and "see" these truths, for God Himself will wake us up and reveal TO us all that He has already done IN us. Dear Lord, thank You for waking us up to enjoy the Life which is You in us!
With love,
