God Goes to Work

"Every past experience is preparation for some future opportunity" - Mark Batterson

No matter what our past has been, God redeems our past and even uses it to help others going through similar things.  We look and judge things from the outside but God looks within and knows us from the inside.  God sets us free from our past but God also wants us to be free of our imperfections and insecurities.  Unless we die to ourselves daily and surrender everything to God, we will continue to be trapped in our past mistakes.

One of the greatest discoveries is how God helps us know who we are while freeing us from who we are not.  God knows our DNA and our destiny which is hidden in our history.  Our strengths are often hidden in our weaknesses and the challenges we have overcome are our opportunities for growth.  Every divine appointment God has for us is a another season of preparation.  Unless we stay close to God and understand what season we are in, we will not understand the outcome or place God is taking us.  God is doing all the work but it feels at times like we are exhausting ourselves to death.

Our lives are like big action movies with epic stories.  The best movies are not the ones with the most action necessarily but the ones with the best character development.  Usually the main character has to overcome some great obstacle or difficulty or face some grave fear or injustice.  What we discover not only in the movies but in life is the worst circumstances can sometimes produce the best character.  God is more concerned about our character than our failures.

What God is teaching me is my self-confidence has to be crucified and what he replaces it is with holy confidence from Him.  May God defend me from my own self-sufficiency, spiritual blindness, and hardness of heart.  May God deliver me from being so entangled in the world that I forget to be wrapped in the Holy Spirit.  I am coming to the place where I don't really think much of hell or heaven but simply ask God to so fill me with His love, enter into heavenly worship, seek union with Christ that is seems like paradise on earth. 

In spite of my illnesses and weakness, God is renewing my inner man and spirit day by day.  Sometimes I sing prayers out loud and sometimes I am simply silent and feel God's presence and peace wash over me like waves of the ocean hitting me continuously without end. 

All I know is I am wounded by God's love and that in itself is enough!