“Clothed in Resurrection Power” (13/40)

We are all well acquainted with failure. At some point in our lives, failure happens. It’s inevitable. But, as John Maxwell says, “Failure is the opportunity to begin again more intelligently.”

I have tried repeatedly to begin a new blog project since I completed my first, “70 in 7.” Yet I have failed to complete another. So once again I begin, hopefully more intelligently, to complete The Phoenix Project, losing 40 pounds and completing 40 blog posts by my 40^th birthday.

Discipline is just one of those battles you have to fight more than once. And when it comes to my weight, battling is just as arduous as it sounds. In fact, this is the eighth time in my life that I’ve stepped up to this particular battle in a war that’s lasted my whole life long. The last two battles were fought after my two daughters were born, and this time I’m trying to rid myself of the weight gained with my son’s pregnancy. At the beginning of the original Phoenix Project, I was desperately trying to dig myself out of depression and failed. I find it interesting that this is my eighth attempt, where the number eight represents new beginnings. Perhaps I had to find the ashes of the Phoenix before I could truly understand its symbolism in my own life.

For me, I think the beauty of the Phoenix lies not in its attractive, vibrant life or the death it surely faces. The beauty lies in its resurrection power. As it is ever true, in Christ.

Jesus said to her, “I am the Resurrection and the Life. Whoever believes in (adheres to, trusts in, relies on) Me [as Savior] will live even if he dies.” (John 11:25 AMP)

For if we have become one with Him [permanently united] in the likeness of His death, we will also certainly be [one with Him and share fully] in the likeness of His resurrection. (Romans 6:5 AMP)

Having accepted Jesus as my Savior, I am thus clothed in His resurrection power and able to start a new life as each sunrise highly blesses my face. Such a simple yet profound truth. I may face the same battles over and over again in my life, but each time I am blessed to know that whether I fail or succeed, I will keep on living in the blessings that His Life inside me cultivates.

Blessed [gratefully praised and adored] be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His abundant and boundless mercy has caused us to be born again [that is, to be reborn from above—spiritually transformed, renewed, and set apart for His purpose] to an ever-living hope and confident assurance through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead…Though you have not seen Him, you love Him; and though you do not even see Him now, you believe and trust in Him and you greatly rejoice and delight with inexpressible and glorious joy, receiving as the result [the outcome, the consummation] of your faith, the salvation of your souls. (1 Peter 1:3, 8 AMP)

I can “delight with inexpressible and glorious joy” having been “renewed and set apart for His purpose.” The glory lies not just in the rebirth but in the specific placement I have been given within His purpose. That is where the highest blessing occurs: not only do I find His purpose, but I find my own. His “boundless mercy” enables me to walk more intelligently into each day with “confident assurance” that whatever happens, He’s got me right where He wants me. No matter how I feel, I will get up, dress up in Resurrection Power, show up and never give up.