Step 1 Of A Thousand!

Someone once said a journey of a thousand miles begins with one step. A little cliche I know, but there is truth in this old time saying. It’s the first step that gets me! I find myself so intimidated by all the what if’s. “What if this fails?” “What if they don’t like me?” This fear of failure often keeps me from taking that first step. How about you? Does the future scare you or intimidate you? You might not share in this fear of failure, choosing instead to boldly blast through life unafraid and undaunted by life’s challenges and changes. I applaud you for your confidence. But… for even the bold and the brave, the thrill seekers, there are times in our journey of life that knocks us to our knees. The unplanned of life that  just can’t be reasoned away; the untimely death of a loved one, the unforeseen breakup of a relationship, the job termination, the health diagnosis, the loss of financial security.  These are the times that freeze us in our tracks. What do we do? What should we do? What needs to be done? How am I supposed to handle this? These are the questions that dog at our minds and intimidate even the bravest and boldest. What’s the first step? Prayer and pause. When we face these unexpected changes we must first realized we cannot handle it alone. God is with us and is for us. That is if we are for God. Without a relationship with Him, we find ourselves doing life on our own for ourselves. I do not apologize for this reference to a relationship with God. If you, like me have accepted Jesus Christ as your Savior, you have a personal relationship with God and He is for you. If you have never accepted Christ, then you have basically no relationship with God. So your first step is to pray and received Christ as Savior. We were never meant to do life on our own. We were made for relationship with God and each other. The first book of the Bible, Genesis, describes this relationship. The first man and woman, Adam and Eve were created for an intimate relationship and oneness “The two shall become one flesh” (Gen. 2:24). God walked with Adam in the cool of the day (Gen. 3:8). Sounds pretty good? Life was good. Until they messed it up. The relationship between the man and woman was changed and most importantly their face to face relationship with God was messed up. They had chosen to live for themselves and disobey God by sinning against Him, forfeiting that personal relationship with God, their creator. So were we left on our own? To figure this all out alone? To do enough good to outweigh the bad stuff we do? The answer is no, for God provided for man a way to restore a relationship with Him. A way that doesn’t rely on a set of scales balancing good verse bad in our lives. God provided a payment. His Son. The first step is to realize that we are in the same position in God’s eyes as Adam and Eve; we have sinned against God and on our own we can’t pay enough or do enough good to change it. We must believe that Jesus was sent by God to take our sin upon Himself when He died on the cross, that He rose on the third day, just as He said, and has defeated death. Acts 2:21 promises that “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved” “For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved” (Romans 10:10). If this is you today, in need of a relationship with God, then your first step is to pray to receive Christ. This is your first step to a journey that lasts forever. I took this step and am on this amazing journey. Won’t you join me?  I don’t claim to be perfect or get it right all the time, but together we can follow this great journey of faith and life together. God Bless -Nancy