Jesus loves to restore lost and broken people—it’s why He came. He is yearning to redeem your past to show Himself strong in your life so that you can shine like the stars forever and ever.
We’ve been striving and straining to accomplish even the most trivial things for the kingdom. Everything seems to be so hard. He comes and puts His hand on our shoulder and says, “peace, be still.”
If we have been comparing ourselves to others, it’s a clear sign that we have lost sight of our calling and purpose.
If we cannot rejoice when others are blessed more than ourselves, we have strayed from the path. We look at those we admire and wonder, “could that be me?” “should that be me?”
Perhaps we’ve grown weary of waiting for God. As a new year rolls around, some have taken matters into their own hands because God is delaying. While others have receded into the shadows of obscurity making self-pity their friend.
The Lord has not forgotten. He has been working the entire time to bring us into His promises. We may have gotten off-course, judging His work by circumstances instead of by His Word.
We may have failed Him many times, but He has never failed us. In our most trying times, He was there— He carried us. He wept because our pride—but we were so busy wallowing in self-pity, that we didn’t even notice.
He sent trials to align us with His plans. They were precious as gold in His sight. But we rejected them. We wanted our circumstances to change, but He’s been trying to transform our hearts so that our circumstances will change.
He sent people our way, but they were difficult and so we brushed them off.
All this time He has been working and waiting for us to learn that it is “not by might, nor by power, but by His Spirit” (Zechariah 4:6).
He needed us to exhaust all our options so that we would trust Him.
He will only demonstrate His strength through us when He is the only option.
You Are More Ready than You Think
If you feel broken and defeated, you’re finally ready to be used for His glory.
When we think we’re ready, it’s a sure sign that we’re not. He is looking for the foolish to confound the wise. He is looking for untrained and uneducated who have been with Him.
These are the ones He has chosen to demonstrate His power in the earth. These are the faithful ones who will give Him the glory and honor due to His name.
Peter’s biggest test came when he had to learn that his own strength was insufficient, but the Lord’s grace was sufficient. After Peter had learned this, Jesus gave him the greatest assignment, to take care of His sheep and lambs. This was a man who only days prior had denied Jesus and briefly fallen away.
The prodigal son isn’t just a parable about those who left the faith, it is also about those who have exhausted all options doing things in their own strength.
And sometimes we need the pigs to wake us up.
The Israelites spent an extra forty years in the wilderness because of their unbelief, only to find that they were right on time for the Lord’s plan. Just like He made provision for the cross before the first human was ever created, so He has made provision for our missteps.
Breaking Old Cycles
Along the path we became weary and we let go of some of the basic truths that keep us on the path. If we’re going to get back to our calling, we need to revisit the basic truths that will keep us on the path.
We get stuck thinking that we want to do “big things,” but the Lord wants to refine us in the little things so that He can trust us with the big things.
If you keep doing what you’ve always done, you’ll keep getting what you’ve always gotten.
Everything the Lord asked us to do is easy because His yoke is easy. It only becomes difficult when we’re not willing to die to ourself. Sitting at the feet of Jesus was easy for Mary, but hard for Martha.
We must break the cycle of thinking that there is life outside of Him and His Word. If we’re not in His Word, we’re spiritually dying (Deuteronomy 8:3).
“Man shall not live by bread alone; but man lives by every word that proceeds from the mouth of the Lord” (Deuteronomy 8:3).
Thinking that we have any ability to gain wealth or any success within ourselves.
“For it is He who gives you the power to make wealth” (Deuteronomy 8:18).
Thinking that we can seek the things of this world without seeking Him first.
“Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you” (Matthew 6:33).
Doubting His goodness and His promises. We need no greater proof of His love and goodness than that perfect work on the cross.
“He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?”
Allowing our past to determine our future. We must break the cycles of regrets, of guilt. He proclaims perpetual jubilee over you; redemption and the release from all your failures. Even if your children, your parents, your friends, hold your past over your head, Jesus does not. We must come into alignment with His thoughts and His ways.
Comparing to others. We have each been given a unique calling. God is not going to judge us by what our neighbors calling is, but our own calling. If He has called you to be the big toe in the church, be the best big toe that you can be. If you try to be the mouth, you’re guaranteed to fail.
Determining our value by our present condition. Our value is determined by our future condition with Him in eternity. It’s the reason He paid the price that He did.
Thinking we’re insignificant, and that the Lord does not need us to accomplish His work in the earth. God makes no one insignificant. To doubt yourself, is to doubt Him.
Being wearied by God. Everything He asks of us, He fully equips us to be able to do. He has placed everything we need to accomplish our purpose inside of us. If we’ve become weary of doing things God’s way it’s because we’re doing it in the flesh—we must do it, “not by might, nor by power, but by His Spirit” (Zechariah 4:6).
Letting any and every thought take root in our heart. Most of the issues that we face are the result of thoughts we keep inside our heart about God, about ourselves, or about others.
“Keep your heart with all diligence, For out of it spring the issues of life” (Proverbs 4:23 NKJV).
Not giving Him thanks in all things. If we want to align with His will, we must give thanks in all things. It’s easy to tell if we’re in this for ourselves or for Him. Those who are in it for Jesus will give thanks in all things.
“in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you” (1 Thessalonians 5:18 NKJV).
Walking by sight and not by faith. We’ve become accustomed to responding to what we see and feel instead of what we hear by the Spirit. You may not feel like worshipping Him, but that’s how you feel, not who you are. Your Spirit man is seated with Him in the heavenly places and can’t but worship Him.
“Walk by faith, not by sight” (2 Corinthians 5:7)
The place that you think you’re in right now that seems far from Him is exactly where He needs you to be. This has been where He has been leading you.
We just never recognized His ways and found ourselves kicking against His purposes.
“In returning and rest you shall be saved; In quietness and confidence shall be your strength” (Isaiah 30:15).
The Lord’s work in our life is purposeful and intentional. But there are phases in His training. Jesus needed to spend forty days in the wilderness being tempted by God. It was part of the preparation.
Every believer must spend time in the incubator for training and preparation. When we’re going through it, it feels like a waste of time. It is only on the other side during the battles that we come to understand what He has been doing.
The Incubator
Jesus spent forty days in the wilderness. The Israelites spent forty years in the wilderness. Abraham waited 25 years for Isaac. Joseph waited 22 years for his promise. David waited 15 years to be king.
If these great men of old needed to be trained and prepared for God’s promise, why would we expect that it would be any different for us?
The question isn’t whether we will spend time in the wilderness, but how long will it take us to break the old cycles? How long will it take for us to die to ourselves?
“Most assuredly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it produces much grain” (John 12:24).
Those who doubted God’s promises died in that wilderness. God had to wait for a new generation that would believe His promises.
Arise and Shine
“For a righteous man may fall seven times and rise again, but the wicked shall fall by calamity” (Proverbs 24:16 NKJV).
What sets the righteous apart from the wicked is that although we fall, we get back up again. The enemy wants us to believe we’ve drifted so far off the path, it would take years to get back, if ever.
Jesus wants you to know that if you’re done striving, you’re right on time.
Instead of resisting the work that He is doing in our heart, let us lay aside self-righteousness and pride, and be humbled as we come under His guidance.
He is not wasting a single day to transform you into His likeness.
He was full of joy on that cross because He saw you. Not in your present state, but He saw the glorified you, full of hope, full of joy, shining in this dark and dreary world, bringing hope and life to others.
We can no longer believe he lies of the Accuser even if they come through friends, family, children, parents—it’s who He says that you are that matters. And until we believe this we will be stuck in the old ways.
He is looking for anyone who will trust Him with all their heart. He is not looking for the rich, famous, or well-spoken. In fact, there are not that many who will seek the Lord with all their heart.
“For the eyes of the LORD run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to show Himself strong on behalf of those whose heart is loyal to Him” (2 Chronicles 16:9a).
The Lord is looking for those whose heart is loyal to Him—those who trust Him with everything with no plan B.
Moses didn’t think He could do the job, yet the Lord had prepared Him for that task.
It’s time that we stop looking at our own insufficiency, and start looking at His sufficiency. We must take our eyes off of ourselves and look at Him.
Are you ready to break the old cycles, remove the shackles and the weights that have been slowing you down?
Be joyful in the trials, be thankful in everything, and allow the Lord to do His work so that you can walk in all the fullness of God.
He is the only one “who is able to keep you from stumbling, and to present you faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy” (Jude 1:24 NKJV).
