The Life Resolution...

Danielle Joyner Kelley

April 2, 2009

"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!" 2 Corinthians 5:17.

Punishment is a word that we on Earth know all to well. If something does not go our way, we immediately wonder what we are being "punished" for. The mind quickly jumps to the question, "What on Earth did I do to deserve this?". Many people shy away from God and Christianity because they fear this God of Wrath that will come down and punish them harshly for every action they have done. People start to read the Bible and convince themselves it is confusing, hard, misleading, and full of punishment, doom, and gloom.

Let's face it. When it comes to God we have not created the best Public Relations campaign. My cousin always told me that thanks to people, God has bad PR. For someone who now knows the power of His unfailing love, the God I know is not that scary, harsh God at all. Not only do you have to understand His love, you have to understand His power of forgiveness.

Understanding true forgiveness requires you to analyze a bad time you are going through and recognize a key difference between "punishment" and "strengthening". When you sin, you face consequences as a Christ follower. Once that sin is committed, the Holy Spirit goes to work and engages in an action that we call "convicting" your heart.

As humans, we know right from wrong. Thanks to Adam and Eve's action in the Garden of Eden, we now have the "Knowledge of Good and Evil". You don't just have "good" and "evil" - you have the "knowledge" of it. That knowledge allows the Holy Spirit to tell your heart when you are doing something very wrong. And you feel it. We often call it the angel on our shoulder saying "don't do it", and that is what it is. Even when you do commit that act though, the Holy Spirit does not stop. Instead the voice goes from "don't" to "you should not have". And you feel the guilt and consequences as a result.

So why is God doing this? Is He sitting up there trying to torture you? Absolutely not. He is trying to "strengthen" you, not "punish" you. He wants you to understand how bad it feels when you do something wrong so you will learn one valuable lesson - don't do it again. For example, frequently we blame others when they hurt us. Then if we allow them to keep hurting us it becomes, as they say, a "fool me once shame on you, fool me twice shame on me" situation. You knew better. God allowed you to feel the hurt the first time so you wouldn't put up with it again, and yet you did.

Our relationship with Him is the same. We hurt him once, shame on us, we hurt Him twice and then if He doesn't stop it then He would be allowing it to happen. And trust me on this one - He knows better!! He won't allow it, and will try to correct your behavior. Trust me, He is doing it out of pure love to protect you in the future. "because the Lord disciplines those he loves, as a father the son he delights in." Proverbs 3:12. "Our fathers disciplined us for a little while as they thought best; but God disciplines us for our good, that we may share in his holiness." Hebrews 12:10. It is out of love people - plain and simple. Be glad He loves you enough to correct you. I always tell myself if God is not trying to correct me then I am in serious trouble and need to work on my relationship with Him.

This happens when you accept Christ and start being obedient towards God. He won't let you fail. You are already forgiven and saved by His grace alone, but in order to have Him work through you and make you better, you have to come to Him and have faith in Him with every single part of your life. "Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight." Proverbs 3:5-6. He wants your paths to be straight because He knows in the long run that your life will be much easier if you allow Him to.

He has given you love and forgiveness, and is calling you to come to Him. "I have swept away your offenses like a cloud, your sins like the morning mist. Return to me, for I have redeemed you." Isaiah 44:22.

God would never have sent Jesus if He intended to forgive you for only some things. A sin is a sin is a sin. "as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us." Psalm 103:12. Forgiveness is a gift. Accept it. None of us are even worthy of it but that is why God's grace is truly amazing. "The Lord our God is merciful and forgiving, even though we have rebelled against him;" Daniel 9:9.

But as the scripture says above, you will be a "new creation". The "old" will be gone and you will be "new". And when you do that you have to learn that what happens to you between the "old" and the "new" is not punishment - it is a chance to learn and allow the "new" you to not fall into the same habits and actions that caused you so much pain. God is strengthening you. To understand better let me show you the difference between "punishment" and "strengthening" through my own testimony.

When I first came back to God on my hands and knees begging for Him to take over my life again, I had to face reality. The "old" Danielle had to die. When that happened, I was forced to learn from all my old mistakes. The only way to do that was to bear the consequence of my sin. The "old" Danielle was a quitter, negative, obsessed with the world and the things in it. God was going to make sure the "new" Danielle did not set herself up for failure by living that way again.

In bearing the consequences of my sin, I felt like I could look back over my entire life and see what I had done. Every harsh word I said, every time I turned my back and hurt someone, and so much more hit me all at once. Many people received emails from me saying "I am sorry and I know now what I did to you." Not that I ever killed anyone but I hurt people, as we all do. God was never punishing me though. He was holding my hand and showing me how much stronger and better the "new" Danielle would be for learning my lesson.

It was hard, and seemed impossible at times, but I had given it over to God and He was not going to let me fall. In His way He let me know that as bad as this was, He would deliver me from it and I would be the "new" Danielle. As He tells us, "Do I bring to the moment of birth and not give delivery?" says the LORD. Isaiah 66:9. I knew in my heart I would be better for this, and the Holy Spirit convicted me of that fact.

Those of you who have seen the movie "Fireproof" will understand what I am about to say. I started my own "Love Dare" with God. I decided that each day I would get up and Praise Him and do something to Honor Him like I never had before. So I started writing these notes. I knew He was pleased, but still He kept on strengthening me. For all my past sins, we were suffering financially. My cell phone was cut off for over a month, and finally Brian and I decided I would get a new one. So I did.

After I had written several notes and received so many wonderful responses, I knew that I had to keep writing. One day my electricity was cut off. I am not afraid or ashamed of saying that because it is part of who the "old" Danielle was and part of the consequence I must face to make the "new" me better. I started not to write a note. God then let me know that my new cell phone (that I got two days before that for free ironically) had Facebook on it and I could do it on there. I started to fight and argue but decided I would start writing, and I did. The messages I received from that note were unbelievable, including one person who told me I helped them turn their life around and back towards God.

So I kept writing. Then my laptop crashed and I had no way to do it on the computer. Our other computer is a dinosaur and has no word processor. God told me to do it anyway. I started to argue that I could not spell check and it would look horrible, but again I stopped arguing and started to write. The messages I received from those notes were even more powerful, and let me know in my heart I was doing God's Will.

He did not make it easy on me - sometimes I was without power, sometimes without a computer, sometimes without any way to type anything on a word processor and check it. But I kept getting back up and moving forward. Before I knew it I was changing, the "old" Danielle was a quitter, but the "new" Danielle refused to give up.

That is the key. God was strengthening me, not punishing me. He wanted to make sure the old things about me changed, so the new me could serve Him better and save myself so much anguish in the process. It is the same with things in life. Even when it gets hard, He is not "punishing" you. He is making you stronger to make sure that your suffering is not in vain. He wants to make you better. Let Him. Place your hope where it will be appreciated, valued and not taken for granted: in Him.


"Do you not know?
Have you not heard?
The LORD is the everlasting God,
the Creator of the ends of the earth.
He will not grow tired or weary,
and his understanding no one can fathom.
He gives strength to the weary
and increases the power of the weak.
Even youths grow tired and weary,
and young men stumble and fall;
but those who hope in the LORD
will renew their strength.
They will soar on wings like eagles;
they will run and not grow weary,
they will walk and not be faint." Isaiah 40:28-31

Knowing He is doing it because He loves you and forgives you, and is teaching you and correcting you as a parent would a child allows you to let go and let Him work on you. That is when the life changes really come to light. You will be filled with so much confidence and strength. Through His grace I am forgiven, and through His love I am new.

Realizing the difference between "punishment" and "strengthening" allows you to stop beating yourself up. If you treat it as a punishment instead of a chance to learn, you get defensive and fight God's plans for you. Learn that He is doing it out of love to make the "new" you stick.

We often fail to stick to things. How long do we really keep our New Year's resolutions? For those of us who say we are going to lose weight, we often make it until just about January 3rd. How much better would you have done if Jenny Craig was living in your home letting you know that you are forgiven and released from your love of bad food? How much better would it be if she was building you up with strength and giving you the power to truly fight your cravings? If your resolution was to exercise, would you not love to have a personal trainer move in with you and work with you as opposed to having to do it all by yourself? Wouldn't it be easier if someone were there to talk you through those weak moments and really bring about change in your life by helping you fight your old habits? Talk about an angel on your shoulder that could actually help you stick to it right?

God is taking your resolution and your acceptance of Christ to that level. He is making it a "life resolution". He is beside you building you up, testing you, stepping in at times of weakness, and preparing you for greatness. And He is NEVER asking you to go it alone. Let Him work and trust in Him completely, and that is a routine you will stick to.

Trust me, the rewards are far too great to go unnoticed. Once you stick to it and start to see them, you will kick yourself for getting off that treadmill as many times as you have, and instead of walking at the pace you were used to you will "soar on wings like Eagles". You will be better, faster, more thoughtful, more loving, less anxious, less upset, and most of all completely brand "new".

Now that is a resolution worth making.