This same Good News that came to you is going out all over the world. It is bearing fruit everywhere by changing lives, just as it changed your lives from the day you first heard and understood the truth about God’s wonderful grace.
-Colossians 1:6 NLT
A setback here, a consolation or two there, today was a mixed bag.
I took a break with God’s word in the middle of my day and remembered how much my life has changed since I experienced the critical words in this verse: “…and understood the truth…”
I had heard the Word my whole life. As a youth in the Jehovah’s Witnesses, I studied it. I understood much of it on an intellectual level. In adulthood, I thought the lessons and warnings could lead me to righteous living.
They did not. My drinking and temper problems were impervious to the rules and dictates I tried to impose.
It wasn’t until my heart opened to relationship with Jesus Christ that I began to heal in His grace. Through His love I found a way to love myself and treat myself as God, the Father, wished.
Understanding comes through the heart, not the brain.