After talking yesterday about how Christ’s blood has made me new, I made the comment that “I will always regret my past”. My sweet friend replied “but it’s made you who you are” and man that’s been running through my heart since. I always talk about loving your true self and yet I hate something that’s apart of me, something that has molded me and taught me so much.
The story in the Bible about the woman caught in adultery and brought before Jesus to be judged shows that it doesn’t matter what you’ve done, it’s about what you’re doing!
John 8:3-5
The teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought in a woman caught in adultery. They made her stand before the group and said to Jesus, “Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery. In the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?”
The devil will use your mess ups and mistakes as ammunition against you. To turn thoughs around you against you and by constantly trying to reminding you what you’ve done. Just thinking about them brings pain, doubts about yourself, feelings of shame. But it’s not about what you’ve done it’s about what you’re doing! Mistakes are learning moments and you take those lessons and grow, move on and use them to guide others to the love and forgiveness of Christ.
John 8:6-11
But Jesus bent down and started to write on the ground with his finger. When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, “Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.” Again he stooped down and wrote on the ground. At this, those who heard began to go away one at a time, the older ones first, until only Jesus was left, with the woman still standing there. Jesus straightened up and asked her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?” “No one, sir,” she said. “Then neither do I condemn you,” Jesus declared. “Go now and leave your life of sin.”
If Jesus doesn t condemn you for your mistakes, we shouldn’t either. As the saying goes “your mess is your message” and a special way to connect with others who are struggling with the same mistakes. When you can relate to someone because you’ve been there, that is a gift, to be able to say “I know, I understand, let me show you what I’ve learned”. I should consider that a privilege and I should love everything about me, I am who I am because of what I’ve been through. Your mistakes make you who you are!!
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