Monday, July 23, 2012

I've Been Changed


Now before you click the Play button, I want you to read what I am about to say.

A couple weeks ago I went to our Church Youth Camp. This is the first song the choir sang. It's about being changed, healed, freed etc. from your past. The song goes on to say, how no matter what, we will never go back to the way things were before. When they were singing, I was lifting my hands and singing along, but my heart wasn't in it. My mind wandered from the basketball game a few hours before, to that cute guy standing a few paces away from me, to what we were eating for breakfast the next morning. I thought I was praising God, but I really wasn't.

As the week progressed, things didn't really change for me, until one night God spoke to my heart. I was kneeling down and praying, and then all of a sudden, everything was different. It's not something I can explain to you very well in words, but it was a night I will never forget. I cried in the prescence of my Almighty God, and couldn't stop. I realized how confused and mislead I really was. It was somehow like I acquired the mind of God and He spoke right to my heart, and filled me with love. That night totally changed how I worshiped God. From that night on, I praised the Lord with my whole heart.

Then on the very last night of camp, the choir came up and sang this song again. This time I lifted my hands not because of routine, but because I was making a promise with God that I wouldn't ever go back. I closed my eyes and listened to the words of the song:


I've been changed, healed, freed, delivered. I couldn't believe it! Every single word of that verse was true. God had changed me. Healed me from my emptiness. Freed me from addictions. Delivered me from my problems.


Within this moment I found joy, peace, grace and favor. God gave me joy within my heart. Peace about my situations. Poured grace over all my sins. He had given me favor again in His sight.

The lyrics of these songs were my promise to God, because I was never going back to the emptiness, brokenness, loneliness or pain I had been in. My heart melted in God's presence, and there are no words to describe the feeling God had filled me with.

But, my friend, you don't have to go to some church camp to get back with God. You don't have to have some amazing service where you are crying on your face before God, to change. You can talk to Him right here. You can sing this song as a promise before God. I can assure you, if you truly talk to God and make the promise that you won't go back. He will be right there with you.  You will feel Him like you've never felt before. For now is the time to say my past is over.....right now......today! Hallelujah!