GATEWAY TO YOUR NEW YEAR

Welcome to 2009 and your life. So what do you think? Does it hold promise and excitement? Do you have great plans – a vacation, move, education or possible promotion? I hope your new year is bright with promise.

Unfortunately not everyone can face this new year with upbeat expectation and peace. Some are anxious and some even dread going through another year of uncertainty and pain. There is always uncertainty in our lives, and we all know that pain is an unfortunate reality of living, but for some of us, those two things dominate the every day. Loss, disease, unhealthy relationships – some of which we are actually related such as a mother or spouse - make for tough-going on some people.

Even in the best of circumstances, “stuff” happens, and no one is perfect, so don't we all have room for improvement?

There are things that happen to us, or things we do and bring on ourselves, that keep us feeling like we exist in a snow globe. Watching the world go by and feeling unfulfilled at best. Depression can settle-in especially when we believe our actions have brought the bad circumstances on ourselves, even unknowingly. But I am here today to tell you that there is a way out of that snow globe. Whether “stuff” happened to you , or if you caused unhappy circumstances to come on yourself, you can be free - to live .

The Bible talks about “gates”. Gates, and the surrounding walls of a city, kept the people inside safe, so the stronger the gate to that city, the lesser the threat of danger. If an enemy captured the gate of a city, it conquered that city. But some people were actually forced to live outside the gate. Who were they? Lepers. Leprosy is a disease that is highly contagious, and in most circumstances, contracted by uncleanness. Okay, so even in Biblical days people knew to wash in running water, etc. Leprosy eats away at a person's flesh, usually beginning with their limbs, until it overtakes vital organs – a long, lonely sad death.

You may ask, “So what does that have to with me?” Hopefully nothing; but let me tell you that there are many, many people living today with a type of leprosy – the spiritual type. Things that have happened in their life are eating away at them, and slowly they are being destroyed. It is keeping them outside the gates of life.

A gate is a doorway or an entrance into something. Your eyes and ears are gateway entrances into your thinking and into your spirit. What has passed through your personal gates…only you and the Holy Spirit know. You develop ways of thinking that can cause you to have leprosy, eating away at you…through your thinking…keeping you “outside the gate”.

“I'm too fat; I'm too thin.” “I married the wrong person; I'm still single.” “I don't have a job; I work too much.” “No one likes me; I can't keep all of my friends happy.” “My kids are too young; My kids are grown and left home.” “Watching a little porn doesn't hurt anyone”, “My house is too small and cluttered; My house is too big to keep clean.” “Suzy got a new car – I have never had a new car.” “The pastor invited five families over to his house for a barbeque, but didn't invite me!” Soon, you have leprosy.

Were you abandoned? Attacked? Abused or defiled? Sometimes things happen to us which we had nothing to do with, and we are truly a helpless victim.

And other times it's our own fault. Did you go where you knew you shouldn't? Listen to lies? Act in anger? Did you bring this bad place in life on yourself?

If the enemy captures your gate, he's got you.

After experiencing childhood rejection I thought I had overcome this enemy by learning how it had so adversely affected my life. I thought I was strong and was doing well. I was earning the most money I had ever earned. I was the most physically fit I had ever been. I was healthy, full of faith and happy. But I had a gate called Rejection that was still unknowingly weak, and when I experienced rejection again, it blind-sided me with gut-wrenching pain, sending me spiraling into a black hole. I didn't think I was that vulnerable, I thought I was over-it and strong.

The first mention of a gate is in Genesis when Lot “pitched his tent” in the direction of Sodom . The gate leading into that city was deceiving. It looked exciting and tempting, and eventually Lot moved his whole family into Sodom . After all, who needed Abraham and his God? The blessing on Abraham had made Lot rich, and wasn't it time for Lot to do his own thing? It was fine for a while, and Lot 's wife integrated right in – I guess she made friends fast. But you know the story and in the end, Lot lost his wife, and all of his great possessions. Lot had been given a warning shot that this gateway was destructive, but he ignored it, and ended up living penniless in a cave with his bitter daughters. We have a God who is faithful to warn us, and if you think back, if you were born again, He warned you too.

Gates are important to our way of thinking. Our thinking frames our perspective. Our perspective controls the way we handle our life.

In the interest of keeping this article a readable length, come back around next month for the continuation on this subject. We will discuss the lives of people who lived inside and outside the gate. You will learn how to never live outside the gate of life again – you can always be in the flow and at the right place at the right time.

In the mean time, take inventory of the gates in your life and begin to pray about how to adjust or change them. The story of Lot and Abraham can be found in Genesis Chapter 11. You can get rid of leprosy and re-fortify the gates of your mind. I'll show you how next month.