Dealing with failure & lies

Sorry it’s been FOREVER since my last post! I encountered two problems during the time gap.

Problem #1: I had so many amazing things going on in my life I didn’t know which to write about! Instead of just picking one thought or God encounter I ended up not writing about anything which is no good! Problem #2: I had a week off from school for a holiday break which consisted of me being rrrreeaaallyy lazy aka—I sat on my couch and watched movies/worked. Yep that’s about it. And while it was nice to relax, spending too many days on the couch is not a good thing. I ended up getting into a small funk (this typically happens when you isolate yourself) with that said however, the Lord in his graciousness still gave me a revelation that I’d love to share.

We fail every day. Yet some days it’s easier for us to become aware of our failings more than others; once we are aware of our failings however, we often allow ourselves to rot there sometimes.

It is in these moments that Satan gets footholds into our lives and tells us lies. We start to think thoughts such as: “How can I read my bible today when it’s been a whole week since I’ve even opened it” “How can I pray to God when I’m so consumed with things in this world I don’t even know if I want to pray to him” “How can I ask God for anything right now, I don’t even deserve for him to listen to me.”

 1 Peter 5:8 says that the devil “prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.” The enemy is adamant about convincing you that his lies are true. He wants you to feel ashamed of the sin that you’re entangled with. He wants you to feel guilty about not reading your Bible. He wants you to feel like God is angry at you and is going to reject you because of your continual rebellion. But these are lies!

As we become aware of our failures it is easy to feel lowly, despised, and rejected towards God because we feel ashamed of our condition. But there’s good news; 1 Corinthians 1 tells us that “God chose the FOOLISH things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the WEAK things of the world to shame the strong. God chose the LOWLY things of this world and the DESPISED things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him.” Did you hear that; God chooses weak, lowly and despised things. He doesn’t wait for you to be perfect before he uses you—he came for the sick not the healthy (Luke 5:31). God is in the business of using broken people to bring him glory. He’s also in the business of restoring and redeeming these broken people through his ministry of reconciliation.

God’s word says that God is sufficient (2 Cor. 12:9—“My grace is sufficient for you, my power is made perfect in weakness”) Wisdom = God’s word applied. When am I going to start walking in wisdom? When am I going to start applying this truth to all parts of my life and not just the easy ones?

Challenge for today: return to the Lord. Regardless of circumstances or rebellion or seasons of running from God, the Lord is waiting with open arms. It is only by his spirit that you get cleaned—return to him because he is good, and his plans for you are phenomenal. Return to him and be restored because “the Lord is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love (Psalm 103) and “his compassions never fail, they are new every morning” (Lamentations 3). The enemy wants to keep you in the lie that says you should feel ashamed about where you are. But scripture says where the Spirit of the Lord is there is freedom (2 Cor. 3:17). It’s time to rise up; its time to stop letting excuses and circumstances get in the way of all that God has for you. Today its time to step out into the unknown purposes of God.