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If I found I had driven into a bog, I should know I had missed the road. But this knowledge would not be of much comfort if I then had to stand helpless watching the car sink and vanish; the damage would be done, and that would be that. Is it the same when a Christian wakes up to the fact that he has missed God’s guidance and taken the wrong way? Is the damage irrevocable? Must he now be put off course for life? Thank God, no. Our God is a God who not merely restores, but takes up our mistakes and follies into His plan for us and brings good out of them.
–J. I. Packer

Plenty of times I’ve missed the road.
Plenty of times I’ve had to “watch the car” sink into the bog.
I’m so glad that such terrible mistakes, though impossible for me to fix, were still redeemable by God.

He can and does and has and will again take my biggest mistakes and allow them to help me better understand Him, His love, and His redemption.

I may still have to suffer through consequences of my mistakes, but He will walk with me as I go through them, and on the other side I will be able to testify to His goodness and the new path and plan He has placed me on.

The Christian faith has always insisted that the flaw in human nature is more basic than any fault in man’s political or social institutions.
–Bruce Shelley

Sorry to burst your bubble if you were not aware… but we are not basically good.

Now it is certainly possible that when we compare ourselves to someone else who acts “worse” than we do, then we might “feel” like we are pretty good.

But if every thought that we had each day were broadcast to everyone around us, we would be mortified, embarrassed, and totally ashamed. Our inner sinful thoughts definitely teach us that we are not “good at heart” no matter how much we want to convince ourselves.

The Bible tells us that our righteousness is as filth to God because all of us have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. Though He created the first two humans in goodness, He also gave them a choice, and they chose to rebel against Him and damaged the perfection. We now find that we are all born with a propensity for sin.

Therefore the quote above rings true. Though there are problems in each society and culture, and though we keep trying to fix these problems, our complaints about the political and social institutions often are focused in the wrong place, because these institutions are not the root issue. The root issue is that human nature is bent toward sin. And until that main problem is fixed, many other sub-problems will show up.

But if that is the case, then the problem seems too big. How do you change the entire human race? Fortunately, God has an answer for us: One person at a time. Your role is not to change the entire human race, but your task is to take the good news gospel message of Jesus who can come in and fix the root problem in each person’s life and you are to share that message with another person. And if you will be faithful to do that, you will begin to see the root problem eradicated in one person at a time, which will change the people around you – your family, your friends, your neighbors, and your co-workers. And as you encourage your entire local church family to do the same, then the neighborhood where your church family meets will change, and the community will change, and society will change.

But it all must begin with us banishing the idea that people are pretty much “good at heart” and understanding that all people are sinners in need of transformation. Only when we recognize this truth will we be ready to do something about the root problem. Again:
    The Christian faith has always insisted that the flaw in human nature is more basic than any fault in man’s political or social institutions.
–Bruce Shelley

We’ve all heard and/or used phrases such as:
   “Put your money where your mouth is,” or
   “He can talk the talk, but can he walk the walk,” or
   “Your actions speak louder than your words.”

We all know that talk is not as valuable as action, and yet it seems that most of us prefer the talking over the taking action… and as we read this quote from over 500 years ago, it seems that this is a long-standing problem:

If men used as much care in uprooting vices and implanting virtues as they do in discussing problems, there would not be so much evil and scandal in the world, or such laxity in religious organizations. On the day of judgment, surely, we shall not be asked what we have read but what we have done; not how well we have spoken but how well we have lived.
–Thomas à Kempis

It is not how well we speak, but how well we live for God.

Choosing Christ as Lord, means living, thinking, talking, even your attitudes must change and come under His authority and leadership. We are to think His thoughts after Him, speak His words to others, and live in a way that honors Him and presents Him to the world as the most precious Treasure that He is. We are to be an ambassador for Him and His kingdom. This is the ministry of every Christian. And yet, it can be difficult because our flesh fights against us submitting to another. But there is good news…

    In all of my weakness, the God of amazing grace has rescued and restored again and again. He has progressively delivered me from me (a work that is still going on). And in being torn between the kingdom of self and the kingdom of God, He has miraculously used me in the lives of many. In love, He has worked to dent and deface my glory so that His glory would be my delight. He has plundered my kingdom so that His kingdom would be my joy. And He has crushed my crown under His feet so that I would quest to be a good ambassador and not crave to be a king.

    Now, that’s good news!
–Paul David Tripp

Yes it is!
Father, Your grace overwhelms me. Thank You for continuing to relentlessly work in my life so that I may see You increase and me decrease. Please continue to make Your throne more important than my own. Continue crushing my crown under Your feet, and take my craving to be king away from me. I know that You are the only One big enough to control my life without destroying it. I once again, today, give it over to You to do with it as You will.
Amen.

The first and greatest commandment is to love God with all our hearts, souls and minds. We’ve already seen how suffering changes you and me, enabling us to love God more fully. Yet suffering also plays a part in our obedience to the second greatest commandment: to love our neighbors as ourselves. Through suffering we are enabled to love, give, support, stand by, encourage, and empathize with our neighbors in ways we were never able to before. “He that suffereth most hath most to give.”
–Anonymous, Embracing Obscurity

I don’t know how you have had to suffer…
…physically…
…emotionally…
…mentally…
…even spiritually…
And when we suffer in one way it often leads to suffering in one or more of the other ways.

But realize this, that God will walk with you through your suffering. And even if the suffering never leaves you (as it never did with Paul’s “thorn”), realize that having God with you in the midst of the suffering will be sufficient and enough to count your walk in it as a victory. His grace is sufficient, and we are made strong in Him when we deal with suffering and weakness in ourselves.

And going through your struggle – whether you have emerged from it on the other side or are in the midst of it right now – gives you an ability to speak into the lives of others in a new way. You have new empathy that will help you love, give, support, and encourage others who are in similar circumstances.

Don’t waste your suffering on self-pity. Use your suffering as a tool to minister to others. Jesus was the ultimate “wounded healer.” Follow His example and allow your wounds and your scars to guide you into deeper and fuller love and compassion and ministry to others.