Tag: Spirituality and Truth

5) GROWTH IN THE REAL AND RAW

As the Tenth Avenue North song You are More says, we are more than the choices that we’ve made. We are more than the sum of our past mistakes… We’ve been remade.

When we make mistakes we remember that we are human. We are fallible. And we are still loved unconditionally by God. Our mistakes allow us to feel the rawness of life, for better or for worse, and participate in its unfolding.

Discovering how our past mistakes can help us today gives us a new perspective. We pick back up and continue on stronger. Philippians 4:13 says, “I can do all things through him who strengthens me.” And Luke 1:37 encourages us that all things are possible with God.

So the next time you notice less-than-desirable past memories floating through your mind, remember that nothing is wasted in your life. You can use that past choice in a surprising new way. How did it help you grow? What did it teach you? How have you changed?

Jeremiah 29:11 says, “For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for good and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.”

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4) USE WHAT YOU’VE LEARNED

We’ve all made mistakes; in that we’re the same. But how we use what we’ve learned to help others is what sets us apart.

Many significant figures from the Bible had mighty failures and made terrible mistakes. Moses, for example, murdered an Egyptian. Abraham (then Abram) lied about his wife being his sister to protect himself. Peter denied Christ three times.

But as Keathley reminds us: “Though they failed at some point, and often in significant ways, they not only recovered from their failure, but they used it as a tool of growth—they learned from their failure, confessed it to God, and were often able to be used in even mightier ways.”

In God’s unconditional love and mercy, we are helped and healed. How can we empathize with, encourage and even help those going down some of the same roads we once walked? It says in 2 Corinthians 3-4, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God.”

Many of us find our greatest purposes and calling in helping others avoid or survive the hurts, pains and pitfalls we once experienced.

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3) OPPORTUNITY TO CULTIVATE COMPASSION

When we’ve made a mistake, instead of digging in our heels and holding tight to our defense, we could look around openly at the whole playing field. Who else was involved? What was their potential experience?

If there were others involved in our past mistakes, we can seek to understand their feelings and perspectives. If we share in their experience (compassion is actually defined as “shared suffering”), we may feel a desire to help or change, and in the process our compassion for others grows. Our eyes are opened to what we couldn’t before see. Ephesians 4:32 says, “Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.”

Psychologists continually learn the personal benefits of having a compassionate heart. Here are just a few:

  • Feeling less judgmental of others
  • Having more desire to help others in challenging situations
  • Experiencing less desire for acting in anger
  • Wanting a more peaceful atmosphere

Besides the personal benefits, compassion opens our mind and hearts to others and their experiences. We step out of a narrow existence and into the shared experience of the human race, made in the image and likeness of God.

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1) THE PERSON FORGIVEN MUCH LOVES MUCH

The experience of God’s grace is by far the best thing that can come from our worst mistakes. Realizing that we are loved unconditionally and forgiven unconditionally isn’t natural to us, but it is mind-blowing and life-changing to realize.

The Bible tells us how Jesus was invited to eat at the house of a Pharisee named Simon. A woman from that town who had lived a sinful life heard Jesus was there, so she came into the house and weeping at his feet, wet his feet with her tears, wiped them with her hair, kissed them and poured expensive perfume on them. Simon was shocked; if Jesus were a holy man, why would he allow a sinner to touch him?

Jesus knew Simon’s heart and the heart of the woman and said to him:

Two people owed money to a certain moneylender. One owed him five hundred denarii, and the other fifty. Neither of them had the money to pay him back, so he forgave the debts of both. Now which of them will love him more?”

Simon replied, “I suppose the one who had the bigger debt forgiven.”

And Jesus said, “You have judged correctly.” (Luke 7:41-43)

When we feel the heavy weight of our past mistakes and then realize the goodness and fullness of God’s forgiveness, we’re moved to an overwhelming thankfulness and love. In the story above, Jesus turned to Simon and said, “Therefore I tell you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven–for she loved much. But he who is forgiven little, loves little.” Experiencing God’s grace opens our heart to a new kind of life– a life guided by the love of Jesus.

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5 Ways Past Mistakes Could Benefit Your Life Today

Maya Angelou once said, “Do the best you can until you know better. And when you know better, do better.”

As Christians we can take past troubles particularly hard, dragging them around in suitcases of embarrassment and shame, thinking no one would accept us if they only knew.

But what if you could use what you learned from past mistakes to improve yourself and even help others today?

You can.

In this post we’ll look at ideas for turning past mistakes into dazzling new positives. Because as Rick Warren once wrote, “We are products of our past, but we don’t have to be prisoners of it.”

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The Battle of Living by Faith

There’s a life that looks real. And pretty and safe. On paper. On screen.

And then there’s real life. The life that is behind all that. The one that has character and flaws and wonders. The one that’s still there.

It’s courageous to be real with people about your weaknesses. To see yourself exposed and walk in that feeling and to keep moving your feet. To keep your head up and your heart open. Because living by faith doesn’t mean every door opens or every person agrees. It can mean trusting God during periods of silence. Or seeking Him regardless of a culture that teaches He doesn’t matter.

To get rejected but keep trying.

To believe in Jesus when others laugh.

To feels so overwhelmed that you break.

To have made mighty mistakes but move on with integrity and hope.

Because living by faith means many things. It can mean feeling the burn of embarrassment on your cheeks while walking away from a fight. It can mean feeling confused and admitting it, relying on God to reveal truth and straighten paths in His time.

Feeling successful some weeks and like a shipwreck others.

And feeling just a little afraid that others will shake their heads silently and judge…

And right there is the fight. The battle of living by faith.

The battle we all know; the one that tells you to stay down. But you hear a voice whispering in your ear, “Get up and walk.”

You know it’s the right voice, but nothing in this world justifies it. You may lose if you get up and walk.

But you choose to do it. You decide at that moment to live. To rise to the occasion, to use the breath God put in your lungs to continue.

And suddenly you realize that being full of yourself isn’t really you at all. And you turn your head. Turn your eyes.

You ask the Lord.

More of you, Lord. Please. More of you.

And that’s when it all changes. Because suddenly you realize there’s much to do. There’s much to be in Him.

“I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” (Galatians 2:20)

Because when we decide to live in faith things get messy. And beautiful.

And finally we know what it means to have beauty from ashes. Suddenly we realize that all the messed up crazy that was our past and at times can be our present is redeemed and bled for and paid for.

Thank  you Lord Jesus.

This time is too short. Let us live, really live, for you.

Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial, for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him.” (James 1:12)

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GOT-THIS-ALL-WRONG GOSSIP

You admit you probably got it wrong, but spread it anyway, because it’s still touching on some points that could be true. Or would sound exciting if true. Either way, it usually starts out like this: I probably got this all wrong, but apparently…

This is one of the most common types of gossip. We think we’re just passing on the latest news. Could it hurt someone? Meh. Maybe. But if we don’t even know the person, does it matter? James 4:17 says, “Anyone, then, who know the good he ought to do and doesn’t do it, sins.”

Thankfully, Jesus gave us an example to follow:

There is nothing concealed that will not be disclosed, or hidden that will not be made known. What I tell you in the dark, speak in the daylight; what is said whispered in your ear, proclaim from the roofs” (Matt 10:26-27).

HOW DO I STOP?

After learning about the types of gossip, do you think it’s time to come clean? Take the next step in confessing and healing the desire to gossip. God bless you!

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WHISPERED INNUENDO

These subtle insinuations can mislead others into thinking wrong thoughts, especially if the conclusions are based on gossipy hunches. Here’s an example: It’s interesting how he was “out of town” the night she was murdered.

Proverbs 26:20 tells us, “For lack of wood the fire goes out, And where there is no whisperer, contention quiets down.”

And a warning from the Bible: “What you have said in the dark will be heard in the daylight, and what you have whispered in the ear in the inner rooms will be proclaimed from the roofs” (Luke 12:3).

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PLANTING SEEDS

The Bible tells us we reap what we sow. With that in mind, this type of gossip is said in such a way to make the listener question or assume something about the character of a person. For example: Isn’t it weird how he keeps staring at your girlfriend when you’re not looking?

James 3:5 tells us, “Likewise the tongue is a small part of the body, but it makes great boasts. Consider what a great forest is set on fire by a small spark.”

A warning from the Bible from Proverbs 16:28: “A perverse man stirs up dissension, and a gossip separates close friends.”

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NOT-REALLY-JOKING JOKES

Have you ever taken some part of truth and turned it into a joke about someone that makes other question their character? It also serves as a passive way to spread more gossip. Example: Maybe he/she will actually get off the couch today long enough to blahblah. haha.

When the joking is harmful to another, it’s mockery. How can you know a mocker? It’s in the Bible. Proverbs 21:24 says, “Mockers are proud and haughty; they act with boundless arrogance.” And verse 9:8 says, “A mocker resents correction; he will not consult the wise.”

In addition, Proverbs 22:10 says, “Drive out the mocker, and out goes strife; quarrels and insults are ended.”

And Psalm 1:1 starts out: “Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked or stand in the way of sinners or sit in the seat of mockers.”

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