Over the past seven weeks, you have worked on many important issues in your life and recorded them on your Authenticity Checks. Did a theme arise from these pages regarding the changes, decisions, and actions you need to make? Now is the time to cement these decisions into a strong declaration of what your new life will be. Claim it boldly. Honor this declaration like you honor and keep your promises to everyone else. And commit to it.
Life gets sucked up with duties, work, overcommitment, other people’s plans, life demands, and laundry! This will be your own personal constitution to refer back to when or if you wander away from who you are. At the end you must face yourself and how you spent your life, and ultimately, you will face God to give an account. This declaration will give you the structure and focus you need. As these weeks conclude, I pray you will find the peace and direction God would have for you.
As you prepare to write your New Life Declaration, schedule a day on your calendar to work on it. Be intentional. Go away from your usual surroundings; find a quiet place where you can be undistracted—the water’s edge, a quaint downtown area, a park with a picnic table. Go somewhere you love and where you can really focus, and consider what you wish to declare. Plan on a minimum of three hours. This is too important to rush.
As you begin your declaration, review the Authenticity Checks you completed. What did your heart speak? What decisions do you need to make and what actions do you need to take? What do you want for the rest of your story? What does God want you to do? What does He want for you? If you won’t take this step now, when will you?
There is no perfect time for changes, but now can be your perfect time to claim your new life before more years pass by. Look at each Authenticity Check, mark them with sticky notes or, if necessary, tear them out of the workbook so you can review all of them together.
When you are in your special place, begin by reading the following. (Men, for you the visitor in the story is a man.)
An old woman appears in the doorway, white hair, shoulders bent, fragile hands. She looks oddly familiar, and you think, Do I know her from somewhere and I just can’t remember? As she approaches, you get this sense that you do know her. She lifts her hand to take your hands and squeezes them firmly. You feel a surprising instant connection.
She leads you to sit on the couch beside her, all the while watching the steps she takes. She lifts her head, leans forward, and looks directly into your eyes. Suddenly the hair on the back of your neck stands up. By some strange supernatural phenomenon, you are staring at yourself at the end of your life. You have indeed grown old; with soft wrinkles around your eyes and mouth. You see for the first time your mortality.
She holds your hand. “What do you want me to feel at this point?” she asks. “What truly mattered? What should I be the most proud of? What are you doing now to bring peace for yourself for when you get here, at this time in your life? Whom did I truly touch with my life? Whom did I love with all my heart? Who carries my message from here? How does my life stand with God here and now?”
Write your thoughts and answers to her questions:
You make promises and commitments to everyone else. This time, make a promise and commitment to yourself. Make it in faith that God will honor it as you honor Him.
In this quiet, undistracted moment, you are invited to enjoy rest, peace, and love. You may not know you’re invited, but deep inside you may long to accept. It is the authentic and ultimate invitation, and it asks for your response.
For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.
—John 3:16 NKJV
But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him.
—Romans 5:8–9 NASB
If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved.
—Romans 10:9–10
And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.
—Romans 8:28 NASB