“I just felt hopeless, with so much remorse, I really thought the right thing to do, the right answer, would be to die.” – excerpt from Family Restored, one woman’s story.
What if we decide to trust God and start to follow Jesus, but fail? What if we fall on the face of our good intentions or cave to some temptation or another? What if you don’t feel quite so victorious?
I was looking for the answer to this and found it in the Book of Romans, when the Apostle Paul taught that nothing can separate us from the love of Christ. Really…Nothing. I learned here that God doesn’t prevent difficulties from coming our way. There are some things that He can only teach us through a trial, and we need those lessons to grow spiritually. (Chapter 5: 3-5) Paul later writes that God will use those trials to help rescue us and to help his overall purpose, to rescue mankind. (Chapter 8: 28 – 36). Ok, so since we go through the hard stuff for His sake, or for someone else’s sake, why would He leave us to handle it on our own? He doesn’t. He lets us tap into Jesus’s power to conquer, and because He loves us, He will lead us to victory over our addictions, our failings, our mistakes. This doesn’t mean if you behave right, He will do it. Let that idea go. It means that He will give us our victory as we follow Christ. Nothing….no person, no mistake, no bad decision…can take that away. We don’t have to be afraid of failure, ashamed of our mistakes, or what someone else will do to us. We are conquerors through Christ. Period.
“being able to stay sober, and seeing my family heal, I am filled with so much gratitude. So grateful for life itself, just being able to wake up in the morning and still be living and breathing and attached with arms and legs, and having my family. And to not be putting drugs in my body, and having a normal life. It’s like winning the hugest million dollar lottery but better.” – excerpt from Family Restored, THE SAME woman’s story.
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