THE BLESSING OF STARTING OVER (PART 1)

TEXT: Luke 15:11-24 (NKJV)

¹⁷ “But when he came to himself, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger! ¹⁸ I will arise and go to my father, and will say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you, ¹⁹ and I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Make me like one of your hired servants.”

Life is filled with seasons of change which causes us to go through phases of transition. Some of these seasons are pleasant while some brings profound disappointments and heartaches but yielding to God’s grace made available for us allows us to be launched into the different possibilities and the gifts of life given to us by God. This article is an invitation that no matter how exhausted you are, it is never too late or too early to start.

• Have you ever failed an exam before that you studied so hard for and somehow went blank at the exam hall?
• Have you had to let go of a relationship that you have invested so much of yourself in maybe because of abuse, heartbreak or lack of fulfilment?
• Have you ever had to deal with any kind of addiction before or still dealing with that makes you feel stuck and helpless?
• Have you ever lost your job or made such a large investment in a business that you lost everything?
• Have you had to go through a painful divorce that left you wondering what next?
• Have you ever grieved over the loss of a spouse, child or any loved one?

These are only a few questions for us to answer, feel free to add yours. Deciding to start over signifies a profound self-reflection that must have taken place as our Bible text speaks of the prodigal child who just took inventory of his life and remembered whose son he was. He recognised his transgression, yet he resolved not to remain confined by his past mistake. Sometimes in starting over, there is a rebuilding taking place, a reconstruction and a restructuring, but there is also a big wall between our present state of feeling defeated or disappointed and starting over; the wall is called THE WALL OF FEAR AND UNCERTAINTIES; it is a formidable barrier. Have you ever faced a moment in your life where the prospect of embarking on a new journey threatened to disrupt the monotony? Maybe you hesitated, unsure of how this fresh beginning could fulfil your life’s purpose, this is the very impact that the wall of fear and uncertainty can have on us, leading us to retreat into our bottled-up emotions.

A practical example for us is Peter the disciple, when he had an encounter with Jesus in Luke 5:10b:

“And Jesus said to Simon, do not be afraid; from now on you will catch men.”

For Peter, that was a new beginning, and in that moment an amplified purpose was birthed, but suddenly the one who gave him a sense of identity was taken away from him after about 3 years, causing his confidence to shrink again and making him go back to his mundane, or should we also go back to Peter professing love to Jesus one moment and denying Him in another moment? All these cuts deep into his emotions and life, which must have caused him to doubt himself and the possibilities made available for him. In John 21 Jesus found Peter again in the same environment He promoted him from; he was back to catching fish and not men. Jesus gave him another opportunity to get it right with His question in verses 15-17. Three times Jesus asked Him the question, “Do you love me more than these?” Remember Peter denied Jesus three times? Jesus was giving him another opportunity to go back to the amplified calling of his assignment, just as He is giving us the opportunity. Peter must have felt very inadequate with this new assignment, just like we feel inadequate when we are faced with our own challenges, or should I say our own NEW. I learnt that

God is not a God of a second chance but a God of another chance,

and He is calling us again to embrace the blessing of starting over.

Before we conclude on the second part of this article on how we can start over, let us ponder on some of these questions genuinely:

• What is leading you to the point of starting over? These are experiences or choices contributing to the desire for new beginnings.

• What do you hope to leave behind? They are mindsets or relationships that do not feed your spirit that you need to let go.
• What lessons have you learnt from these experiences? How have these past experiences shaped your ideologies and the valuable insights you took from them?
• What are your core values? These are the key principles that are most important to you, and how do you align these values with your new beginning?
• What goals do you want to set? What specific, realistic goal do you hope to achieve in this new chapter?

PRAYER: Heavenly Father I come to you today, and I ask that for every one of your children that comes across this, feeling stuck but scared of a fresh start, release your grace over them to take the giant step in Jesus’ name. Amen