I am participating in Blogging  Through the Book: The Gospel of Yes by Pastor Mike Glenn.  This series was birthed by Dana Pittman, who is an amazing  writer and speaker.  I am honored to be partnering with her and her amazing team of writers.  Every Wednesday we will be blogging our thoughts and insights from this book.

“As the Living Christ infuses every crevice and hidden place of believers’ lives with his life,
everything dark and broken is pushed out.” ~ Mike Glenn

Courtesy of Creative Commons

I enjoyed reading Chapter 6, “The ‘Yes’ of the Resurrection.”  What especially stood out for me was the story of pediatric surgeon Ben Carson.

Pastor Mike Glenn explains Ben Carson had a serious anger problem.  One incident was so extreme it forced him to really look at himself.

“He retreated to the bathroom in his home and read his Bible and prayed that God would remove this terrible temper. He wrote, “Lord, despite what all the experts tell me, You can change me. You can free me forever from this destructive personality trait.” After spending almost all day in the bathroom, praying, reading Scriptures, crying, and begging God to help him, Carson finally found the peace he was searching for.”

I don’t know about you, but this encouraged me. We all have struggles as Christians, we haven’t arrived.  I’m sure there are times you think to yourself if you will ever overcome a particular issue. Whether is it cursing, losing your temper, unforgiveness, pride, etc…

We do have hope.

Our hope comes from our risen Lord Jesus Christ.  He died and resurrected for all the messes in our lives. He died just for you.

If you were the only person in the world, He would have still died on the Cross for you. I know this may be hard for you to believe or wrap your mind around.

We can’t fathom the enormity of God’s love for us.

I mean think about it a minute, can you fathom or even understand God’s love?  I know I can’t.  But, the Scriptures point to His love.

“For God so loved the world, that He gave his only begotten Son…” (italic mine, John 3:16).

We hear it time and time again, He gave His only Son.  He died for us in our less than perfect state, more like messy state.

God loves us despite our sins and even despite ourselves.

We can’t change ourselves, we can try and make a valiant effort, but we will fail. The only person who has the power to change us from the inside out is Jesus Christ.

I meditated on this truth. The fact is all of our striving is for naught. All we need to do is come as we are, messed up and broken… “Here am I, Lord.”

He is longing and waiting for us to reach the end of ourselves.

He is waiting for us to surrender. Surrendering will look differently for each of us.  But, it is in the going to Him that we will know what He is specifically asking from each of us.

We do this by getting in the Word of God, having our minds renewed and by much prayer.

He is our Hope and our Divine Yes.

We have a hope and it is found in Jesus Christ alone.  When we say ‘yes’ to His Word and His ways things begin to change in our lives.

He is more than able to heal all those messy places in our hearts and lives. We just have to be willing to let Him do it.

Have you said ‘yes’ to Jesus?  Do you believe He can heal and change you?

Blogging Through the Book is a group of bloggers who literally blog while reading the book. It’s different than merely reading a book and posting a review. We have a chance to read and share our thoughts in community. To learn more visit www.danapittman.com.