Do you ever feel like you’ve messed up beyond repair?
You know those things that weigh on your heart, the shadows of past regrets, failures and pain?
Romans 8:28 says that “God causes all things to work together for our good.” All things—that includes the hurtful decisions and the unfortunate events that are a part of your story.
How often have you looked at your past mistakes and lost hope, believing that as a result of your sin or the trauma you have experienced you have missed out on God’s call or plan for your life? Yet, that isn’t what God says about you!
The Lord takes EVERYTHING in our life and weaves it together to produce the blessing of His purpose.
So, how does God plan to redeem your story? Here are some things to consider.
- It isn’t about you. The Lord takes your mistakes and those experiences that are negative and weaves it together into the revelation of who He is so that it produces power in your future. This is possible because of WHO HE IS, not because of what WE have done. Ecclesiastes 3:11 reminds us that “He has made everything beautiful in its time.” This includes your story—past, present and future.
- Your life is a beautiful tapestry. The Lord takes all that the enemy throws against you, all that you’ve thrown against yourself, weaving it together into a beautiful tapestry. Think about this: Jesus prayed for Peter. He didn’t pray that Peter would avoid stumbling; He prayed that after stumbling his faith would be strong and he would encourage his brothers (Luke 22:32). You know why? Jesus knew that it was far better to pray for the strengthening of Peter than to pray for the protection of Peter from his weaknesses, because the enemy would go after those weaknesses later. Your past sins and struggles are keys to your calling—ask God how you can encourage and minister His grace to others through your past.
- You can trust the Lord with your story. The devil will try to tell you that you are beyond God’s redemption, that you’ve fallen too far. Don’t give the enemy the benefit of a single minute of regret and emotional toxicity. The Lord is looking out for your best interest, all the time. He weaves together the pluses and the minuses, never doubt that. Know that He is faithful to complete the good work He began in you (Philippians 1:6).
Remember this: a negative and a positive must combine to produce power.
Redeem your story! Bring your burdens before the Lord in faith, and say, “Father, I thank you that You redeem all things, and that You are so brilliant You can work this into Your blueprint for my life and for my family, in Jesus’ name. Amen.”
Question: What is your story? How has the Lord worked things—the positive and the negative—together for your good? Comment below!
As One!
Lance
Lance,
Here is a new phrase to coin. Just remember you heard it here first. The Democate Machine has been gas-lighting the nation. It’s a technique to make people crazy by denying reality. It has all but removed the ability to think critically from our young.
Amen..believing this on my child.
Thanks for the encouragement.
Thanks brother the Lord has laid this upon my heart some while ago and I shared it with my people so its just a confirmation for me keep it up and continue to share God’s wisdom amen.
Thank you, Lance and God bless you for what you bring from Him. Just what I needed today. This message came at the right time. I just finished breafast and went up to my room with heavy thoughts and bad feelings from the past and present. God has used you in my life for many years.
Awesome. The timing is perfect and follows on from the 7m underground post yesterday. Thank you so much. If I hadn’t been so down during the Las couple of years at work I wouldn’t have scoured the net for things to help lift me and found your page and broadcasts and now able to share them with so many others feeling the same
I’m overwhelmed by God’s kindness! He knows I need this message this morning. So often, eventhough God has spoken, the past would not let go. But God is so kind that He would remind me again and again. Waiting for the time when I can see all things have worked for good. Thank you for the post, Lance.
Yes this is a great word of encouragement and perspective! All Things! Thank you!
These 2 minutes videos are SO AWESOME. You can nutshell in two minutes what it would take me 40 minutes to say.
I send these out to the masses–well…, my “masses”.
Thanks for your excellent mentoring and council.
And BTW, I love your longer periscope rants as well. Ha!
Consider that all the stuff we go through, in the valley of death to our self, is His pulling us, sometimes dragging us, towards His nature. Considering it all joy, in itself, is almost like a sacrifice of praise…but we praise Him because of what He did for us on the cross. When I consider what I go through, I realize I got through, not to brag on me but to honor His work in me. Truth is, a lot of the times, I’ve tried to purchase a ticket for that Jonah boat. The biggest hurdle I faced was that other gospel where everything, other than Jesus, is awesome:)
Romans 5:2-5 Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.
Very helpful. So often when this topic is preached, it is only about sin. Well, what if, in best efforts, one does not have the results one wants? (Sure don’t want to hear about obtaining forgiveness and making better choices!) Well, still, God can weave everything into a great tapestry. Good message.