Reminders of Struggles From the Past

This past week has been a hard one for me. It seemed like every time I turned around, something was reminding me of mistakes I had made in the past, of things that had hurt me and other people. All week, I fought against the feelings of being worthless, useless, unwanted, unneeded, feeling like just so much trash thrown aside. Like I couldn't be good enough to be used by God. As though I can be "good enough" for God! That's the awesome thing! I don't have to be. Why? Because Jesus was.

Tonight, in the sermon my youth pastor preached to a roomful of teenagers, college students, and a handful of adults, he shared a story from shortly after he became a Christian. In his story, he told us how he had struggled with decisions he had made before he became a Christian and how he felt like his sins had made him dirty and filthy and unusable to God. Until one day he heard someone preaching. They pointed out that God takes all of our sins from all time, all the "not so bad" ones and all the "bad", "super bad" and "unforgivable" sins, and He throws them as far as the east is from the west and remembers them no more. Psalms 103:10-12 says, "He has not dealt with us according to our sins, nor regarded us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is His lovingkindness toward those who fear Him. As far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us."

Isn't that amazing? Our God knows everything we've ever done and thought, every little word or action, and even with as horrible as we may think they are on the "Sin Scale", He forgives them. Every. Single. One.

Gone. Just like that. Faster than we can blink or snap our fingers. Forever gone.

As my youth pastor shared with us tonight, that truth set him free from all the sin that Satan had been bringing up and throwing in his face. From that moment on, when he realized God didn't view him as worthless or unusable because of his sin, but saw only the saving grace of His Son, Jesus Christ, and had thrown every one of those sins to the farthest ends of eternity, my youth pastor was freed from his struggle. In Romans 8:1, we are told, "Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus."

Now, the Bible doesn't say that being a Christian is gonna be easy; far from it! But, it does promise us that we won't be given more than we can handle. Maybe we think we can't handle it, but with God's strength holding us up, we are more than conquers. As First Corinthians 10:13 says, "No temptation has overtaken you but such as is common to man; and God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will provide the way of escape also, so that you be able to endure it." And in Romans 8:37, the Bible says, "But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us."

So on days when Satan is throwing your past in your face, trying to tempt you to go back to your old ways, or telling you that you aren't worth it, you're useless, you're just trash, you're ugly, you'll never amount to anything because of this or that...just remember whose opinion actually counts in the end. And it sure isn't Satan's! God has taken every sin you've ever committed, no matter how bad or unforgivable you think it is, and He's thrown it away and doesn't remember it anymore. As my youth pastor's wife has told me, God has thrown your sins in the Sea of Forgetfulness and posted a "No Fishing" sign. He sees you as pure, clean, and a deeply loved child of His. Don't ever forget that!

In Christ,

Esther Faith