Reminders of Your Past
So you are no longer a slave, but God’s child; and since you are his child, God has made you also an heir.
Galatians 4:7 (NIV)
You may never be able to detach from certain aspects of your past. There will be reminders of the darkness you used to live in. But those experiences and decisions and mistakes serve to point to the light of Christ’s presence in your life now.
So don't be ashamed to own your past, because it only highlights your growth since then. These reminders will be interpreted by people differently based on their value systems, so learn how to meet people where they are, but don't let them make you ashamed of the change in your life.
Like the healed man who was told by Jesus to carry his mat and walk, you are carrying your mat because you're no longer lying on it. You're carrying it because you're no longer restricted by it. So hold it and carry it—not with shame but with thanksgiving.
And if the people around you—based on their value system—still want to categorize you as an outcast, that’s up to them. But for your part, don’t be afraid to own where you've come from, own what you've been through, own what you have survived, and don't be ashamed to testify, “Yep, that was me. And it almost took me out, but thanks be to God for His mercy, I can stand and testify that His grace is still amazing.”
The Lord has decided to set you free, and He gives you the chance to carry the weight of your past in gratitude when the world wants you to carry it in guilt. Jesus lets us carry it in thanksgiving when the world wants us to carry it in shame.
What kind of weight will your past be as you carry it through life—a weight of embarrassment and regret and shame, or a weight of redemption and growth and progress?
Keep Showing Up
Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.
Galatians 6:9 (NIV)
There are times in life when each and every one of us—because of weariness or a bad attitude or selfishness or whatever—feels defeated and deflated. Our resolve to keep fighting, keep working, keep doing what we are called to do, is simply spent. I have felt it myself, even in the work of ministry.
But do you know what? Even if I didn't feel like praising and preaching, even if I didn't feel like congregating with anybody, I knew that if I could just show up and give Him the offering of my presence, He could make up the difference between where I was and where I should be.
And I can tell you there have been many a weekend or a weeknight that God blessed me as a reward for the offering of my simply showing up.
Right now, you may be living in a state of hardship, trial, weariness, constant discomfort, or longing for wholeness. You may be dealing with chronic pain or a sense of overwhelming discouragement. If that is the case for you, know this: One of your greatest gifts is to keep showing up.
You can call it spiritual persistence. You can call it holy tenacity. You can call it enduring faith. You can call it perseverance. I don't care what theological tag you put on it. The point is simple: One of the greatest gifts that salvation has given you is the gift to keep showing up. No matter how long you've been bent over and suffering and ignored, I guarantee that God is worth your not quitting.
I'd rather crawl through life in my pain than to give up on God, because the one thing I know is that God will never give up on me.
Make a choice now that even if you have no strength left, your optimism is waning, and your trust is dissipating, if all you have left is the ability to show up, you will count Jesus worth at least that offering.
Mats Matter
Then Jesus said to him, “Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.” At once the man was cured; he picked up his mat and walked.
John 5:8-9 (NIV)
After 38 years of disability, the invalid man near the pool of Bethesda was finally healed. He was healed by Jesus, who told him to get up, pick up his mat, and walk.
In reading this story, I am struck by the importance that was placed on picking up the mat. Why did Jesus tell the man to pick up and carry the symbol of his past?
Then I saw that every one of us every day should carry the symbols and signs of the changes in our lives that are the result of God's power.
That mat was a symbol to everyone who saw it, and its message was this: “No matter how long your condition has confined you, no matter how restrictive your life has been, no matter how negative your human circumstances, when you encounter Jesus, He has the power to bring change.”
Here is the lesson that I learn from the mat: Don't be mad at the things you have to carry. They are reminders of struggle—heavy weights of pain, limitation, heartbreak, betrayal, and mistakes from the past that we are not to forget too easily. We are not to cast them off or stop talking about them or stop owning them.
The desire to let these things go and put them in the past and never bring them up again is understandable. But these things are indicators of positive change, markers of spiritual progress, images of healing, and signs of personal maturation.
I'm trying to tell you that not one weight you carry, not one struggle you manage, not one scar you bear should you be ashamed of, because each of them is an indicator of how much you've changed thanks to Jesus.
Finding Purpose in Life
I cry out to God Most High, to God who will fulfill his purpose for me
Psalm 57:2 (NLT)
You may not know the name of Johnson Oatman, Jr. He was born in New Jersey and grew up in the home of a really gifted singer. His dad was such a gifted singer, in fact, that his name and reputation made him like a celebrity in his local context.
Like his dad, young Oatman could sing too, but his gift was not as sharp. His instrument was not as finely tuned as his father’s, and this fact started to affect his emotional health.
He questioned, “Where do I fit in life?” He knew that his father had a superlative gift and that his own gift hadn’t risen to the same height—and probably never would. He didn't want to live in the shadow of his father, but wanted his life to have its own meaning and purpose.
One day as he sat in his despondency, trying to muse and ponder what his future was going to be, instead of humming one of the songs he had been singing, he took pen to parchment and started scoring the song. That was a new beginning for Johnson Oatman, Jr.
Released from his life was a gift more remarkable than his father’s—because while the father had a gift to sing, God gave the son the gift to write. And because God gave the son the gift to write, we have these words:
There’s not a friend like the lowly Jesus,
No, not one! No, not one!
None else could heal all our soul’s diseases,
No, not one! No, not one!
Jesus knows all about our struggles,
He will guide till the day is done;
There’s not a friend like the lowly Jesus,
No, not one! No, not one!
Young Oatman wrote more than 3,000 hymns, and no hymnal is complete without including some of his insightful writings. We as believers have been immensely blessed because a young son decided that instead of giving up and sidelining himself, He would call on God to show him where he fits in life.
Cry out to God today, and continue to do so until he fulfills His purpose in you.
He Sees You
On a Sabbath Jesus was teaching in one of the synagogues, and a woman was there who had been crippled by a spirit for eighteen years. She was bent over and could not straighten up at all. When Jesus saw her, he called her forward and said to her, “Woman, you are set free from your infirmity.” Then he put his hands on her, and immediately she straightened up and praised God.
Luke 13:10-13 (NIV)
Luke describes a woman who had been crippled by an evil spirit for 18 long years. She was bent over and could not straighten herself up. She was imprisoned in this condition, and people regarded her as occupying existence on the fringes of culture. She was an outcast, a pathetic woman to be shunned or ignored.
She surprisingly found enough strength and tenacity, however, to attend the synagogue on a Sabbath day when Jesus was teaching. No doubt she and many others present enjoyed listening to Him teach, spellbound as He opened the eternal Word of God and taught them the riches of salvation, the free gift of grace, and the enormous love that God has for all creation.
In that crowd, this woman was bent over, struggling to keep her head up enough to even look at Jesus. Maybe from time to time, when she could catch a glimpse of Him, she noticed that Jesus was also looking at her. When the lesson was over, Jesus looked at her one more time and, in a clear voice, asked her to come over to Him. Struggling to make her way to Jesus, she finally presented herself to Him.
And this is what the Master said to her: “Woman, you are free from this ailment.” The original language implies this: “You are free now and you will remain free from this condition. You are free permanently.”
Immediately she could stand straight, free of the pain that had been in her life for 18 years. The Bible says she began praising God as a result.
In reading this story, I couldn't help but think that long before the woman was asked to present herself, she must have been lifted and blessed and inspired and encouraged by simply being noticed. Her first liberation was that, in a place where she had grown accustomed to being ignored, finally somebody noticed her.
Jesus could not be present in that place and ignore her. Jesus was going to do what others had failed to do or chose not to do. He was going to notice her, acknowledging both her condition and her value as a person.
Today you may feel that no one knows—or no one cares—what you are going through. But Jesus sees your condition, He values you, and He wants to do a mighty work in your life.
