Revelation 3:20
To benefit from God’s touch inside your spirit, you must welcome Him in... Even if, like Moses, you zigged when you should have zagged, God is still with you and still wants to draw near to you. His presence is not based on your performance. He’s not only with you on your good days or more with you on your good days. He is always with you, because that’s who He is, not because of anything you have or haven’t done. I don’t care what skeletons are in your closet: whether you were once on drugs, whether you’ve spent time behind bars, or whether your marriage failed. The things behind you are no match for the One who is with you.
How do you begin to move forward from a mess you have made?
Let your identity come from the way God has rescued you and not with what you needed rescuing from in the first place. We can romanticize the story, but the truth is Moses had a turbulent upbringing. Things were so stacked against him when he was born that the safest thing his parents could do was put him in a tiny boat and set him floating down a river full of crocodiles. He had to pretend his mom was his babysitter; then once he was weaned, he grew up in the court of the man who had tried to kill him. The deranged Hitler character became his grandpa. Sounds like an expensive therapy bill to me.
God brought good out of Moses’ challenges in the end. But when you are in the thick of it, it can be hard to see that. Moses could have ended up a very confused, very mixed-up puppy. But note that the name Moses, which means “drawn out,” was given to him because he was saved from the river, not because he was cast into it. His name came from his deliverance.
This is key for you and me. It’s so easy to get stuck, to fixate on the bad things you have been through. To focus on the hurt — that you weren’t loved, or that you are divorced, or that you are an addict, or that you are fatherless, or that you were sexually abused.
If you’re not careful, this bitterness can turn into a victim mentality and a wounded spirit. You can let it control you and give you your name. It’s easy to be defined by your dysfunction, but it’s not necessary.
Just as Moses means “drawn out,” you have been called out. The Greek word translated as church in the New Testament literally means “called out” ones. Jesus loved you so much that He called you out of the crocodile-infested darkness into His marvelous light. Royal blood was shed for you! You have been rescued.
Beauty from ashes. Light from dark places. He makes all things work together for good. Every day you have a choice: you can dwell on the fact that you were put into hardship, or you can focus on and rejoice over the fact that God drew you out. God wants to bring you to a place where you are not defined by your dysfunction but by your deliverance.
To benefit from God’s touch inside your spirit, you must welcome Him in... Even if, like Moses, you zigged when you should have zagged, God is still with you and still wants to draw near to you. His presence is not based on your performance. He’s not only with you on your good days or more with you on your good days. He is always with you, because that’s who He is, not because of anything you have or haven’t done. I don’t care what skeletons are in your closet: whether you were once on drugs, whether you’ve spent time behind bars, or whether your marriage failed. The things behind you are no match for the One who is with you.
How do you begin to move forward from a mess you have made?
Let your identity come from the way God has rescued you and not with what you needed rescuing from in the first place. We can romanticize the story, but the truth is Moses had a turbulent upbringing. Things were so stacked against him when he was born that the safest thing his parents could do was put him in a tiny boat and set him floating down a river full of crocodiles. He had to pretend his mom was his babysitter; then once he was weaned, he grew up in the court of the man who had tried to kill him. The deranged Hitler character became his grandpa. Sounds like an expensive therapy bill to me.
God brought good out of Moses’ challenges in the end. But when you are in the thick of it, it can be hard to see that. Moses could have ended up a very confused, very mixed-up puppy. But note that the name Moses, which means “drawn out,” was given to him because he was saved from the river, not because he was cast into it. His name came from his deliverance.
This is key for you and me. It’s so easy to get stuck, to fixate on the bad things you have been through. To focus on the hurt — that you weren’t loved, or that you are divorced, or that you are an addict, or that you are fatherless, or that you were sexually abused.
If you’re not careful, this bitterness can turn into a victim mentality and a wounded spirit. You can let it control you and give you your name. It’s easy to be defined by your dysfunction, but it’s not necessary.
Just as Moses means “drawn out,” you have been called out. The Greek word translated as church in the New Testament literally means “called out” ones. Jesus loved you so much that He called you out of the crocodile-infested darkness into His marvelous light. Royal blood was shed for you! You have been rescued.
Beauty from ashes. Light from dark places. He makes all things work together for good. Every day you have a choice: you can dwell on the fact that you were put into hardship, or you can focus on and rejoice over the fact that God drew you out. God wants to bring you to a place where you are not defined by your dysfunction but by your deliverance.
Excerpted with permission from "Swipe Right" by Levi Lusko, copyright Levi Lusko. Attribution is listed on the Devotionals Daily blog. July 21, 2018.
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Prayer:
Father,
We want to be defined only by You and the testimony of what You have done in our lives. We choose to stand on Your Word in Romans that all things work together for good, even those things which we must overcome. Help us, Father, to be bold and to testify of our deliverance through the Cross of Christ. In Jesus' Name we pray. Amen
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