WHY GOD WILL STILL USE YOU

I am a very passionate person; a passionate introvert to be exact! What?! I hear someone exclaim. Yes, I am. Now my personality type means that I am very observant, but I will also keep and defend my friends to the death. I also pursue what I love with such passion that standing in my way could be disastrous. That part however I have managed to bring under control by the Grace of my LORD Jesus Christ through the Holy Spirit's work in me. 

 This very same passion however often works against me. I am extremely critical and unforgiving of myself. I hold myself to a very high and strict standard of performance and integrity that when I fail I sometimes think the entire world has come to an end. That too, God has worked on over time. I have had my fair share of dramatic failures in life, from which I have learned to get up, dust up, forgive myself and move on. My walk with the LORD has not been an exception to these failures. In fact, my first real understanding of this God of Grace was when many years ago as a born-again person I miserably failed, and I found myself in this place where I could not pray, could not lift up my hands in worship and could not even open my bible to read even a verse.

 In scripture we find a lot of lessons about this. Recently during the lock-down as I meditated on scripture the LORD brought back to me these lessons. Indeed we all know that according to biblical teaching we live in the dispensation of God's Grace; the time when He has both poured out His Holy Spirit upon all flesh and has as well open wide the gates of Grace that we may learn to walk with Him in confidence. God started showing me men of old like Abraham, David, Moses, Jacob and many others. These men who lived in the Old Testament dispensation knew God and pursued Him. One cannot avoid but see the greatness of these men when we read Holy writ. They were Gods “supermen”! I love reading about them because there is a certain depth about their experiences that keeps speaking each time I read. In fact, at times it is overwhelming for me. What the Holy Spirit started showing me about these men was that in our time we live a bigger advantage in God than they had, and yet, they still found Grace in the presence of God at a time when that was a rare gem! They never had the outpouring of the Holy Spirit in their time like we do, and yet they can forth in power.

 The other aspect that came through is that these men had serious weaknesses each. Abraham had a major failure in the Hagar episode; David and Bathsheba – that’s another story of lust, adultery, intrigue, murder and cover-up! Jacob was a fraudster. Moses was a man with a short fuse. Yet all these men, despite their failures we also note that they did not allow to live in the shadow of their sin and sinful nature. They never allowed their failures to over shadow them. This is not to say they willfully lived a life of sin. These men seem to have understood that God understood the weak vessels they were but still loved them anyway. They never felt obscured by their weakness to serve Gods purpose.  They walked confidently with and before God. Whilst the demand to be pure still held, they still were not perfect. They still failed but never disqualified themselves. It makes me wonder because we who live today even have a much better place in God. These men understood partnership with God and confessed their sin when they became aware of it, got up and walked forward.

 The bible teaches that we are joint heirs with Christ. 

Ro 8:16 The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God:

Ro 8:17 ¶ And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together.

Ro 8:18 For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.

 There is nothing temporary or transitory about being an heir! It us a firm place to be. A place of assurance. No one chooses heirs lightly only to change them at the slightest provocation. We are family so. It is ok to make mistakes as long as we are growing in the process and amending where our failures originate from. It is ok to be wrong, as long as we right the wrongs and don’t assume they are an acceptable place to stay at. So, it is ok to be a Christian with weaknesses and mistakes, who is minded towards becoming what Christ wants us to be. God is not about to write you off for that mega failure of the flesh you walked into. Yes, like a loving child you will hurt from that mistake but take that pain and cry for Grace toward that mountain (Zechariah chapter 4 verse 7), get up and walk. My weaknesses do not automatically dis-inherit me.

 If God could use the Abrahams, Isaac, Jacob, David and Solomons' of this world in their weakness and used them mightily, then He will use us all if we are willing and obedient. Yes, you will still make mistakes, but those will not disqualify you. Our relationship with God is not one of a cat and mouse commitment as some tend to think. The fact that you fall today does not mean you stand for the mistakes you have made. Whilst God hates your sin, and He prefers you were maintained in a sin free state, He is aware that Human beings are creatures of habit, thus it takes time to change the things that affect us. What matters most is that you are well on your way.

 “…but such as I have give I thee: In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth rise up and walk!”  - Acts 3:6.