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God "Flips" Lives

I was driving down a street in our town and I noticed that a For Sale sign had been put up outside of a house that had recently been flipped, restored into a livable condition.  Over the past few years I had watched the home deteriorate after a family moved out of it - some gutters fell down, the grass grew up, part of the porch fell in and the house seemed like it was destined to sit for several more years and then be demolished.  It has always amazed me how much a house begins to fall apart if it is not being cared for on a regular basis.

The house went up for auction about six months ago, and a few weeks after the auction work began on the house.  It was interesting to watch the house be revitalized step-by-step.  First they re-roofed the house, then they put a large dumpster in the driveway and filled it up a few times, then began taking care of projects inside and out, then they painted the exterior of the house and finally did a little bit of landscaping.  What once seemed like an uninhabitable mess now looks like a cute move-in-ready home.

As I was driving by the newly renovated home and the new For Sale sign it struck me that just as those workers had flipped that house, God flips lives.  Just as the house I described previously was slowly falling apart we each find that our lives are in need of repair.  For most of us there are small areas of our lives that develop problems and at first it does not seem like much to worry about.  We have relationships that are leaking, or finances which have become overgrown or some emotional issues which need to be repaired. We recognize that some of these struggles are the consequences of forces beyond our control, but many of the struggles have come from choices that we have made.

The pivotal moment in God flipping a life is when we give up ownership and allow God to take control of our lives.  You see, God paid our life debts through Jesus Christ and once we admit that we need help God can give us a fresh start.  The Bible says, "And everyone who calls on the name of the LORD will be saved" Joel 2:32.  What does that mean? It means that when we pray to God and tell him that we are in need of repair he will begin to flip our lives.  

First, there is junk and damage that needs to be removed, the Bible calls our choices to hurt others or ourselves "sin".  Just as there needed to be a dumpster to remove some junk from the house, we often need to have junk removed from our lives. The Bible says "for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus" Romans 3:23-24.  When we ask for forgiveness for our sins God has promised to forgive our sins and begin to flip our lives.

Next, the repairs can begin - big stuff first, like the roof of the house. If there are obvious ways that we are hurting ourselves or others, God begins to challenge us in our hearts to stop those actions or words. God begins to introduce new ways of thinking about the people in our lives, or even about ourselves.  He asks us to forgive those who have hurt us so that we can be free from that hate and anger which is tearing us apart. God introduces a new perspective on all of our relationships - loving God and seeking to honor him with our everyday lives, loving those that God has put into our lives, and loving the person that God has made us (Matthew 22:37-39).

Over the rest of our lives God continues to work on our house.  He continues to clean out areas of our lives that we have ignored, repair parts of our lives that are newly broken and he even begins to add on to our lives - new friends, new opportunities and new joys.

If you need God to flip your life, you can talk to him right now.  Please contact me by email or phone if if I can be of assistance.  Pastor James
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