Are you feeling the weight of imperfection? Has the past consumed more of your thought life than anything else? Times in the valley can seem painful and hard to manage, but there are endless learning opportunities. This may seem difficult to fathom. If you are in your valley, stop and take a look around. Take true stock of your day to day life, the hard and honest contemplation. Then look to God. Pour out your heart, because nothing is worse than attempting to trudge out of the valley alone.
Scripture tells us: that nothing can ever separate us from God's love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow - not even the powers of hell can separate us from God's love (Romans 8:38 NLT). Nothing, absolutely nothing. Can you feel this pierce through the fog? No job loss, no cancer, wayward child, addiction, or label can separate you from God. If we hear this and breathe this truth, it will make our uphill journey out of the valley easier, because we have a perfect love within us.
The sin we are in doesn't negate our relationship with Jesus. It can send us in various directions as we attempt to figure out what is next. I retreated, beating a hasty backward motion because I allowed my label to convince me I was unloved. No one wants to be known as a "homewrecker," and I was sure that God wouldn't want a woman with that label either. I continued all the things I thought would make it right again: church attendance, reading my Bible, and prayers that desperately sought God's forgiveness. There was no convincing me I was 100% forgiven. Until several years ago in the moment God asked me to share my story.
I was dumbfounded. Share? Was he serious? This was not happy Jesus stuff, this was messy life stuff. Exactly. That one word stopped every argument I could muster because God had me covered (Psalms 91:4).
Is this you? Are lessons from your low leaving the feeling you can't contribute to changing hearts and lives? Shut that thought from the Enemy down now! Others need to know their momentary failures don't disqualify them from being a functioning part of God's plan. We have the ability to display repentance as meaningful, not a demeaning part of our faith journey. It is also important to know becoming a Christian doesn't make our lives perfect, this is a daily process of returning to the cross and admitting that we need beautiful grace.
Today, bring your past insecurities, sins, and lessons to God and ask the difficult and amazing question of: what can we do with this?
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