Start Over: Help and Hope for Your New BeginningShembull

Starting over isn’t easy, huh?

Sometimes, I struggle with starting over because I have a ton of regret and grief over what happened in the past. I wonder if I’ll be able to escape the pain.

Other times, I’m so excited to get beyond something hard and start over. I’m secretly hoping that the future isn’t as frustrating as the past. “Please, God, make what’s next better!”

Yet, on some occasions, I’m sad to start over because I really like what I was doing or what was happening. I don’t really want to start over because I’m afraid the best is in my rear-view mirror and not out of my front windshield.

Whether you’re excited to start over, scared, or somewhere in between, I hope to spend the next five days encouraging and equipping you to embrace your opportunity to begin again.

The first piece of good news I want to share with you is pretty simple - none of us has mastered this thing called life. Ernest Hemingway once made an observation about writers. He said, “'We are all apprentices in a craft where no one ever becomes a master.”

Hemingway was spot-on when it came to the craft of writing, but I think his words can also be applied to the art of living. No one ever masters life. As followers of Jesus, we don’t master the art and craft of discipleship. Every day, we’re hopefully making mistakes, learning, and growing up into the people God made us to be.

I know you may be discouraged when you think about the fact that you’re always going to be making mistakes, starting over, and beginning again in your life with God. But, this truth makes me excited, because when I open the Bible, I find that God has a vision for me that is better than my plans for myself. Unlike me, God is always able to make His plans into reality.

In the book of Ephesians, after sharing some incredibly exciting things about the plans of God that are being revealed, Paul shares his prayer for the church. In the middle of that prayer are two things I want you to consider as you start again.

“And may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love is. May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully…Now all glory to God, who is able, through his mighty power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think.”

Did you catch those two truths?

God’s love for you is beyond your ability to understand and God’s plans are beyond your ability to ask.

No matter what you’ve done in your past and where you’ve been, God’s love is greater than those things. Paul prayed for those who read his letter to experience that love, even if they might never be able to understand it fully.

But, Paul doesn’t stop there. He goes on to say that God is able to accomplish through us more than we can ask or think. You’ve got a pretty good imagination and you can ask God for a lot. But bigger than your imagination and longer than the list of your requests is God’s ability to work in and through you.

So, as you start over and you continue with this plan, I want to encourage you. Don’t settle for small dreams. Don’t make safe plans. You are loved beyond your imagination and God’s glory is beyond your comprehension.

Tomorrow, we’ll dive into our past and learn what God’s voice sounds like as we learn from where we’ve been.