God Notions

My youth was a collection of trusting the wrong people too soon and finding myself in bad situations. I made poor choices because I was afraid to hurt someone’s feelings or I wasn’t brave enough to stand up to bullies. What I have found to be interesting is that because of these poor choices, others, and maybe rightly so, developed an opinion of me that I am “less than”. Unfortunately for myself, I accepted that these perceived opinions must be true because I believed they “had it all together”. This has been a vicious cycle for me: trusting the wrong people, shaking loose from that grip of deceit, trying to fit in with the “right” wrong people, who deem me substandard, only to return to trusting the wrong person, though they might be a different person, most often they weren’t to be trusted and on and on it goes.

My head spins thinking of that horrid cycle.

As a Christian, I felt how can God use someone like me? I have messed up too many times, my past is a mess. Then I met Rahab. I am sure Rahab did not start out wanting to be a prostitute. Perhaps poor choices or circumstances in her day left her little choice. Regardless of her circumstances, regardless of what others thought of her, and regardless of the fear, of the God of Israel, that consumed her and those who lived in her country, Rahab broke the cycle and stood apart from the majority and made a choice based on what she believed to be truth. Rahab believed God had the power to change her circumstances. She said, “ … for the LORD your God is God of heaven above and on the earth below…” Joshua 2:11

Rahab didn’t know God, but she had heard of Him and believed. Her faith in this God she didn’t know was enough to put her life into His hands. Who He was made her brave, her faith in Him gave her courage to act. He honored her for her faith, Rahab is in the family line of Jesus. Regardless of her past poor choices, she was brave enough to trust the LORD and her life was changed forever.

This is where I find myself today. The past is past. Our God is the great I Am. The living God who is present and alive and willing to use the faithful for His purpose and glory. He is not the great I Was. He doesn’t look back to our past and hold us back, we do that to ourselves. He wants to take our lives and create a new life with purpose. God wants to reveal Himself to the world that He is the God of second, third, even seventy times seven chances and that He has the power, authority, and desire to make those changes in the lives of the faithful believer for His Kingdom and Glory. No matter the amount of faith or knowledge, just the heart’s desire to trust and follow Him.

There are more people in Jesus’ family tree that are less than stellar, but they shared a desire to keep pursuing God even when they failed or like Ruth, they only knew of Him from others. What a gracious and generous God we serve, who looks to the heart of men and not our works or deeds to bring us into His plan and Salvation.

God is Trustworthy. God is Faithful. God is Just. He is Gracious, Merciful and Kind.

I have never met a follower of Christ who regretted following Christ.