New Clarity

Psalm 32:^1-2 “Count yourself lucky, how happy you must be—you get a fresh start, your slate’s wiped clean. Count yourself lucky—God holds nothing against you…” (MSG)

You may be reading this today, and deep down you feel like an outsider, you feel like you don’t belong. You feel like this “church thing” is all strange to you. Guess what? Even if you feel that way, God has come for you also. Jesus is saying to you in Luke 5, “I’m here inviting outsiders, not insiders—an invitation to a changed life, changed inside and out.” (MSG). So, for everyone who is reading this today, you may even carry the label “Christian,” and you never miss church. But you feel you do not belong to God. Today, Jesus is calling you in also. So, what changes when God gives you a fresh start? What is new in your life? What happens when I open my life to God? What is the new in the new life, and what is fresh about this fresh start?

There are a lot of things, but we are going to look at three of the things that happen, three things that change, three of the fresh things that God brings into our lives. And the first one is CLARITY. God brings new clarity into your life. When you open your life to God, God gives you new clarity. You are going to start saying things differently, the same things, but your perspective begins to change. You are going to start seeing your problems differently. You are going to start seeing the people in your life differently. You are going to start seeing your past differently. You are actually going to start seeing your present differently. And definitely, you are going to start seeing your future differently.

When you open your heart to God, the first thing that happens is that your perspective changes. You are no longer without hope and without life in this world. John 8:¹² “…Jesus said to the people, “I am the Light of the world. So if you follow me, you won’t be stumbling through the darkness, for living light will flood your path.” (LB). In the Name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, living light will flood your path. And that is what happens because Jesus is the light; your perspective changes, and all of a sudden you have clarity. In reporting the Gulf War, one of the army generals of the U.S. said that the greatest advantage the American troops had in Iraq was that they had night vision glasses and it gave them the ability to see in the dark.

And a lot of those night vision glasses come with thermal sensors. So, they can see the movement of the enemy through a wall. So, through the wall, they can track the person and shoot the person down. The capacity to have clarity is a huge advantage for the child of God.

Prayer: Father, I open my heart to You afresh, and I receive the capacity to have clarity because Jesus’ living light floods my path, I will not stumble in the dark, in Jesus Name. Amen!