Don’t Lose Hope

Last night I held my first ever women’s event, and it was incredible. It was incredible because you see all these women in one place from all different churches and walks of faith but there for one purpose, to grow in their faith with God. Looking around the room watching women work together, volunteering their time is the ultimate goal of us as Christians to come together for the goodness of God. My heart was overcome with emotions, because when you really let the goodness of His grace fully consume you it humbles you. Just because you have made plenty of mistakes doesn’t mean that you are unworthy for His love.

Most of my life I spent knowing of God and the goodness of what He can do but never fully deeply experiencing them. I didn’t understand the enormity of His grace until I was in my late 20s. I think we are often scared to truly follow Him because deep down we know it’s going to hurt. It’s going to cause us to lose, and losing is something none of us enjoy. The loss of a friend, family member or the life you wanted. When things come to interfere with the trajectory of where your walk with God is, you are going you have to move it to the side. I grew up listening to the saying “God will never give you more than you could handle” and as my walk with Him has evolved I have learned that this is simply not true. There will be more than you could possibly handle and it is this way because we were never made to handle it all. He is there to help us carry our burdens to help make them lighter. When you think of His disciples and the life that they lead by choosing to follow them, none of it was easy.

One of my favorite things about some of the disciples is that they weren’t these perfect people of society. I mean have you ever really looked at what they were; Matthew was a tax collector, tax collectors were not notable people of society, their money was considered unclean. Judas was a thief and he embezzled money. This is where even if you think you couldn’t possibly be fit to be in the kingdom of God you are wrong. He doesn’t want you perfect. No matter how good you think you are He is going to break you and remake you in His image not yours. We were all created by Him to serve Him. Everything on this earth we are to use to the goodness of Him.

Please do not for one more second let the failures and darkness of your past dim the light of the future. Trust me when I say I have made more mistakes than I want to admit. For heaven’s sake I allowed myself to become so consumed by the darkness of this world and let them hold my worth, and this is why I have struggled with an eating disorder and my self image. He is the only one who can hold your worth. There is so much this world is going to try and offer you and tell you that it will fill you up and it will make you whole, but I promise you if you follow that path, you are going to keep spiraling down a pit of darkness and His light will become so dim you will be lost.

If anything my journey in my faith has taught me this: He is always teaching me something. There is always going to be a trial of some kind; it doesn’t have to be big but the enemy knows when your heart is hungry for God, and he is going to tempt you, but do not lose sight of Him. Ground yourself in His truth, so that when these lies come you can tell where the truth starts and the lies begin.