Thinking this morning…if we had all had perfect lives-made all the right decisions, never entertained sin, never failed, never been wounded by others, never been deceived by the enemy–we would have no testimony for our Lord and Savior. We wouldn’t have needed Jesus to die for our sins and our lives would bring no glory to God but rather to ourselves and our own performance and self sufficiency.
When we hide our past mistakes and sin, when we are pretentious trying to convince ourselves and everyone else that we have it all together, when we cover up our shame and guilt with anything but His forgiveness; not only are we missing out on a big part of our purpose for Him, but others are missing out on the testimony of His grace, His healing, His restoration and the encouragement and hope that comes from someone who has a similar story. It’s a scheme of the enemy for us to carry that shame and guilt, to hide, to pretend. God wants to use our story and He wants us to be so secure in Him that we are not afraid to be transparent.
We are here by Him, for Him…to bring glory to Him! How completely amazing is it that He can take all our mess, absolutely all of it…and turn it into something beautiful. A life of a sinner saved by grace, living in the peace and security of a Mighty Lord and Savior, rock solid in our identity that has absolutely nothing to do with what we have done but ONLY that we are His. He knows our name, He knows every hair on our head, He has chosen us as His very own, we are loved with an everlasting, boundless love. There is freedom in His truth-believe it!!
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Marla Geiger 