Have you ever looked back on your life and questioned your actions? Maybe you thought, "Wow, what a waste of time." What if it wasn't? What if what you went through is exactly where you were to be? After all, look at Job. God gave Satan permission to move Job in every way possible. He just wasn't allowed to take his life. So, with that thought, why couldn't God allow those times in our life for a greater purpose, even if we thought they were mistakes?
I didn't come to know the Lord as my Savior until I was twenty-four. Almost twenty-five, but that doesn't mean the Lord didn't know who I was. In fact, He did. He knew me before I ever took my first breath. Just because I didn't realize He wasn't at my side 24/7 didn't mean He wasn't still present. Don't you think each move I made He already knew about it? In fact, maybe through all those years where I was searching, He in fact was leading me straight to Him. Isn't after all, our choice whether we accept Him or not? Well then, we can't count out the fact that it would just as well be our choice of whether or not we follow Him. He is always calling. We just don't seem to bother answering, that is until our heart is ready. Until He has prepared us and the Holy Spirit goes to work. We tend to forget, everything in God's perfect timing.
We want everyone to be saved right now this minute. Ever ask yourself, "Why can't they understand?" Well, just maybe their heart isn't ready to accept yet. Just maybe the Lord is moving in them. Creating a heart willing to accept. Should we really ever count God out of anything? Doesn't He have His hand in everything? There is nothing that touches me without first going through the hand of God. Saved or not saved.
So just think. You gotta love how God takes a part of your life that you thought was a waste of time and changes it into value. He can take a mistake and turn it around to a teaching aid. He can use our past to reach those for the future. He can turn a dream into a reality. NOTHING goes unused by God! NOTHING! You gotta love a God where ALL things are POSSIBLE!
God uses every part of our life for His good. He isn't able to do bad. Those bad things in our lives are in fact, teaching tools. We just gotta be able to see it as that, instead of just bad timing or wasted years. I can share with you that my life is an open book. If you want to know something I will share with you. There are times in my life I look back and think, "What was I thinking? Boy, did I mess up there." Well, even though I may have, God was still teaching me. I am able to see that today. 20/20 vision is great. Hindsight is even better, but we don't get that view in life, do we? We get to see the right now. Too often, we get stuck in just looking back. But, in order for us to move forward, we must be able to look back and learn. Each stepping stone leads to reaching the shore.
Today, He is taking things in my life from long ago that I thought were all used up and creating beauty with them. He is even taking those mistakes, those heartaches and turning them into blessings to be used by others in their spiritual growth. Everything my hand pens, comes from something, somewhere, and I can tell you, it sure isn't me. Everything we do has purpose and reason when it comes to God's plan.
He is taking dreams and making them reality. He is connecting me with people today I had no idea that even existed a year ago. Our mistake in life? We simply don't dream big enough! God doesn't want us to be simple minded. He wants us to look beyond ourselves and see His capabilities. He wants us to take our eyes off the, "I can't", and place it on the, "HE can!"
All those times tears stained my cheeks were times of growth. What I thought was stalemate, God brought to movement and possibility. Just because we can't see beyond today, doesn't mean, He isn't working in our lives for tomorrow. After all, won't we all have a legacy? It's just up to us on what it says. God wants to use up every part of our lives for His glory and honor. When we begin to see that nothing goes unused, it changes our perspective doesn't it? We then begin to see hope in everything. After all, isn't that the very thing God wants us to see? In Him we have hope. We have the hope of letting go of yesterday with the peace that He is going to bring today a great purpose that will leave our hope in tomorrow for others to see.
"For I can do everything through Christ, who gives me strength."
Philippians 4:13
"For I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord. They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope. In those days when you pray, I will listen. If you look for Me wholeheartedly, you will find Me."
Jeremiah 29:11-12
