Christ has made a difference in me

i walked through a garden in the morning
i walked right into a change
no words were spoken
just a feeling
and i cannot explain
but i can feel the difference - King's X, The Difference

It always seems to happen around the end of the year. Things get really busy at work and the stretch of days that I plan to take off are threatened to be broken up by a promise to check an email here or a half-hour conference call there. As I walked out into the parking lot last night there was a specter that wouldn't let me pass until I had walked right through him thereby committing myself to some mode or method of work during my vacation. Once I had whirled around to see if I had, indeed, passed through him (I had, there was no doubt about that) I said to myself, "Lord, I am not going to worry about this. You got this one, right?" A simple prayer that did nothing to dissipate the presence of that ghost but that set my mind and heart on a course into water that was decidedly uncharted before I trusted Christ as the leader of my life and the forgiver of my sins.

Hanging up the phone today I found that the troubling spirit was just that - something to vex me rather than something that had real power over my circumstances. God gave me a victory over worry last night and He made it so that I would not need to spend one extra minute on work this Christmas. For that I am thankful. Even if He had not spared me this I cannot explain the power that held me back from the familiar path of worry that I trod down time and time again before He saved me from the consequences of my sin.

Thankfully, He doesn't expect me to explain the Power He has given me access to. I am just expected to testify to its presence. Please let me tell you this: I can feel the difference.

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