Alive!

While I was incarcerated, I was probably reading my Bible about 6 hours a day. I could not get enough. I was filled with life, hope, purpose, and energy. My life no longer was a hopeless, aimless event that was just passing me by, but had become an event of which I was an active participant. For the first time in my life, I was alive! Truly alive, and I could feel it coursing through my body and mind. I would wake up with a smile and I would go to sleep with a smile, and I was in prison! One of the guys who slept by me told me that he just didn't get it. He said, "You are the happiest person I have ever known, and you are in prison. On top of that, you don't have a TV, or food, or anything. You have nothing but your Bible, yet you are happier than guys who have everything." It was because God had given me life. As I devoured His Word, I was filled with Life, and that Life overflowed into everything I did.

It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life.
- John 6:63

There was nothing that could snuff out what God had given me. I was free and alive, and my life was vibrant even in the darkest of circumstances. There is no way to ever describe this peace and hope with simple words. I knew that no one could touch me unless God allowed them to. I knew that I would leave that prison when the appointed time came which God had already determined, and I knew that that time would be when I was ready to face the next season of life. Because I believed God, and took Him at His word, that faith infused in me great hope and peace. The promises of God are irrevocable, and He will perform His Word!

No weapon formed against you shall prosper,
And every tongue which rises against you in judgment
You shall condemn.
This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord,
And their righteousness is from Me,”
Says the Lord.
- Isaiah 54:17

And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.
- Romans 8:28

What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?
- Romans 8:31

For all the promises of God in Him are Yes, and in Him Amen, to the glory of God through us.
- 2 Corinthians 1:20

For the first time in my life I truly understood the gospel, and the good news of what God has done for us. Though I was a horrible, selfish, sinful man, God loved me enough to allow His Son to die for me and pay for the due penalty for my sins. He loved me, and chose me. He called me unto Himself, for His purpose, to fulfill His plan. I didn't have to be perfect, which is great news since I am not! I just had to be me. Be real with God, trust Him entirely, and be open and honest in all things. Before I was ever a twinkle in my father's eyes, God knew me and destined me for great things. This is His promise to all who believe and belong to Christ. There is one Holy Spirit, and one God. As God does not give the Spirit with partiality, we are either an heir to the promises, because we are in Christ, or we are not. There is nothing in between.

For He whom God has sent speaks the words of God, for God does not give the Spirit by measure.
- John 3:34

“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you;
Before you were born I sanctified you;
I ordained you a prophet to the nations.”
- Jeremiah 1:5

For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.
- Jeremiah 29:11

If we are indeed filled with the Holy Spirit, which is the evidence of a person who belongs to Christ, then we are indeed made a son or daughter of God. Wrap your mind around that for a minute! An heir to the throne of Almighty God!!! For no other reason that it pleased Him to do so! If we can't be thankful for that, then we have some serious problems.

But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name: who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.
- John 1:12-13

It is through faith that we are established. All of the things I had chased after all of my life, yet could never obtain, were finally mine. I didn't have to search for happiness anymore. I didn't have to struggle with doing stuff to make myself feel better. As I stated before, there are no words to properly convey what this feeling feels like. Complete peace and purpose... In Him I had all that I had ever desired. This will not make any sense to those who reject God, but for those who belong to the Lord, even if they are not yet there, these things will strike a cord deep within your soul.

So shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth;
It shall not return to Me void,
But it shall accomplish what I please,
And it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it.
- Isaiah 55:11

For us, there is great hope!! Lift your eyes to heaven and praise the name of the Lord! If we will just trust Him, He promises that we will not be put to shame.

“Do not fear, for you will not be ashamed;
Neither be disgraced, for you will not be put to shame;
For you will forget the shame of your youth,
And will not remember the reproach of your widowhood anymore."
- Isaiah 54:4

This has been a great blessing to me as I have written this. Hopefully it blesses you as it did me. God is so good!!! The way I felt then is just as powerful within me today. There is nothing that anyone can do to move me from what God has given me!