It Is Finished!

So here I am finishing a little bit of a rough day, a rough year really. I have been remembering back to where I was a year ago at this time recently, and its so weird. Life has changed, man it has changed. Its not worse, its actually better, but the amounts of change have been great. They've been when I least expected it, in areas I never knew would be hit so hard, and through most of this time I have greatly failed in my striving to be an example and leader in word, conduct, love, spirit, faith, and purity. Lately I've felt the same. The Lord has kind of giving me a vacation, a nice little time apart from hardship and temptation, and man it has been nice. I've been refreshed, renewed, and restored. So here I am tonight, with my life on a totally new path, and this path I know now is the path the Lord has for me. I can't see exactly where it goes, but I know that its the right way. And then a few days ago I started feeling weird. I started feeling uncomfortable, I started trying to figure everything out and quickly failed, I started remembering old sins, old mess ups, my old life that the Lord burnt away, and in some ways I missed the comforts of it. That quickly made a way for guilt for not being thankful for all the Lord has done for me in this past year. Then came the blowups, people accusing me, people around me fighting because of me, me not meeting people's expectations, and I laughed almost all of it off, because I know that Lord has been faithful through everything. It was pretty easy to fight through. It kept biting at me though, I pushed it off, the lies and the worries, but I did not kill it. I let it keep coming back from time to time. It slowly got worse. Then more things happened, old insecurities were brought up, old attacks, old tempations, and I could not understand what was going on. That leads me to now, not knowing where I'm going with this blog, or why I'm typing it, all I know is this. I've been lied to a lot this week, not by people, but by Satan, and my place in Christ has been challenged by my actions and those around me. I've had open doors exposed that I need to take care of. I've had things I know now that aren't surrendered to the Lord, and I've learned for the hundreth time that I'm not smarter than God. I feel a little overwhelmed trying to make things up to God, to try to make things right with people, to try and figure out why life hasn't been quite as good this past week, and it'd be real easy to worry all night, think about it in the morning, and slowly keep sowing into my life seeds from the tree of knowledge, seeds of worry, and fear, and things that aren't really life. I'm tempted to do that, but then I look up to the top of my blog, and I see the red highlighted words that remind me that "It is finished." A smile slowly develops on my face, my worried mind slowly calms, and I finally take a big breath of fresh air. I allow that light to shine powerfully into all of my dark places, yes I've messed up and those around me have, things are changing again, but I will not be moved. It is finished, it is done. His love for me will not improve, its finished. My place in Christ is unshakeable, I am not moving out, I am secured in being in Him. My life is in His hands, He finished it for me. Here I am, I let go, and just hearing those three simple words, It is finished, I am reminded of the Lords faithfulness, and now I lay it all down again, and I surrender. Just a really long encouragement, whatever your challenges of the current season, nothing is enough to move you from who you are and your purpose that comes from the finished work or Christ, rest my friends, just rest and be loved.