Post by: India Tungate
The way we view our experiences in life can have such a powerful effect on how we walk through the rest of our life. It is important to keep an open mind when reflecting on our past. Because those experiences can be turned into stories that we carry with us. Stories, much like the parables that Jesus told, can bring an impact to others around us.
Our experiences help to shape us into the Jesus followers we are meant to be as well as form our impactful testimonies that we can share. These testimonies just might help bring someone closer to Jesus themselves. Not all of our experiences in life are going to be joyful. Often, we have to travel down the rough trenches that truly help in molding us.
My family likes to keep a group text going and I had saved a recent conversation that I felt was appropriate for this blog post. My cousin Ashley had written, “God never wastes our pain. Only we do that.” We often choose to dwell in our pain. To mope, complain, and wallow in self pity when life gets complicated and just plain hard.
We all go through it. However the pain that we walk through, God can and will use it for good. My uncle shared from Paul, as he had wrote in the Bible about how we should rejoice in our pain:
"We can rejoice, too, when we run into problems and trials, for we know that they help us develop endurance. And endurance develops strength of character, and character strengthens our confident hope of salvation."
Because of sin, we have to endure the pain. It’s just a part of our earthly life. However we are never alone in that pain and we are strengthened by the Lord.
"Those who wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength" Isaiah 40:31
Through death, God gives you beauty for ashes. I am so thankful for that. That God made something so beautiful from something so ugly (death) but isn't that precisely what He does? Jesus died on a cross, a terrible death. A death we deserved but he did so willingly so that we all could have eternal life! God gave beauty for ashes!
Our perspective on life can change everything. And beyond trying to become more creative and keep an open mind in order to see the opportunity for a better story, there is also the possibility of dropping everything and realizing that there is freedom right at the surface of this moment. Because when you trust in God’s plan, fully with your whole heart, life’s burdens are lifted and there is freedom in that.
God can take your experiences, both good and bad, and form an amazing testimony. God is our greatest reward. And when we have Him, we have everything. Therefore seek the Lord and His strength; seek His presence continually! (1Chro 16:11) This year, let's set our minds on seeking God and giving him permission to create impactful testimonies within us. Let’s allow him to take our ashes and create something beautiful from them.
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