How To Make A Fresh Start
	Steven Chi
	7th September 2008
	Steven Chin-How To Make A Fresh Start.mp3
	Isaiah 43:18-19 We all like to have a fresh start in our Christian life, but we all make mistakes in our Christian life. We experience many setbacks and failures throughout our lives, that we sometimes allow it to enslave us until we cannot enjoy our Christian life....

John 10:10

The good news is God wants us to have a fresh start, a new beginning. He wants to do something in our life so that we can start fresh, to look at the new things God will do. He is more interested in our future than our past.

S-T-A-R-T

S-Stop Making Excuses

If we want to make a fresh start in our life we need to stop making excuses for our failure, stop blaming others and stop seeing ourselves as the victim of our circumstances.

The bible says the best way is to be honest and accept responsibility of our past.

Proverbs 28:13

If we admit our failures, mistakes or sins, we will be given another chance.

Why do we fail in life:

a) We don't prepare ourselves to face the problems in our life

{bibile 46} Prov 21:5

Did the rain cause Noah to start building the ark? He had to prepare and work hard for the coming rain. In fact the rain did not come until 120 years, but that is how long it took for him to build the ark.

b) We don’t listen to others

Prov 11:14

We need all the advice we can. God put people around us to help us. When we refuse to listen to people because we think we don’t need it, it is call pride. When we think we know more than God, we tend to push him away, believing only in ourselves.

Pride causes us to fail to prepare and listen to advice and as a result we fail.

c) We give up too soon

Prov 24:10

The problem is, often times, during trying times we stop trying. We give up because we find it is too tough, we do not want to endure further and see the result.

Not succeeding the first time is in fact normal. We give up when success is just around the corner. We never see ourselves as someone who can do it and be successful. We blame and think that it’s hard and that it’s not worth trying. People who like to make excuses tend to spend their time and energy thinking why they don’t get what they are suppose to get.

T-Take an Inventory of Our Life

We need to evaluate all the experience that we had of what God has put in our path. We need to look and see our failure and what we can learn from there.

Galatians 3:4

Learn from our mistakes. Failure can be an enemy or a friend – we determine it by the way we react to it. Choose to learn or choose to repeat it.

God use our experience to shape our life – through our experience with our friends, family, siblings, our spouse. God also use our spiritual experience to shape us – our church, going for retreats, our prayers & bible study and spending times with people

2 Things we need to ask ourselves:

a) What have I learned? What can I learn from the failure that God has put in my path? There are failures in our life so we can learn and prepare ourselves for the task God has prepare for us.

b) Who can really help me? We need to know who can really help us in our life. We need someone who we can trust and who can help and walk with us together to gain the victory.

A-Act in Faith

The Bibles says the key to changing anything (circumstances, personality) is faith.

Matthew 9 -"According to your faith will it be done to you"

We tend to get in life what we expect it to be.

Acts 3:1-5

When we ask, expect something to happen. Many times we ask for something but we don't expect anything to happen. We need to stop feeling self-pity and sorry for ourselves. We need to stop rehearsing our past. The more time we spend regretting about the past, the more of our future is wasted.

How get rid the fear of failures? By faith.

Proverbs 29:25

R-Refocus Our Mind

We need to rethink the way we look at things.

Proverbs 4:23

The way we think determine the way we feel, and the way we feel determine the way we act. If we want to change our actions just change the way we think.

Romans 12:2

Stop focusing on what we don’t want, start focusing on what we want. Think about things that encourage us. We can also focus on the Word of God.

Psalms 1:2-3

2 things that most of us want: happiness and success – the answer for it is to think about the Word of God. Meditate on it, merely reading is not enough.

T-Trust God

Success is not trying harder but living smarter – leaving God in control of our life.

Mark 9:23

1 Peter 1:23 (NLT)

God promised us, He wants us to have a new life.

Will you have a fresh start?