A Beautiful Mess
Hello Friends,
I crave chocolate all the time...Like you will find me in the corner stuffing my face with those little baking chocolate chips that you put in cookies. Isn't that hilarious? Today, I am going to be straight with ya'll. The other day, I was with a friend and she mentioned how she was frustrated. She explained her life was a mess and that Christians or religious people have to have perfect lives... My heart dropped and I explained," There is no such thing as perfect." The truth is, Life is messy. There, I said it. We make mistakes, we fail over and over. We make bad choices. Life is truly messy. we are messy people and God takes that mess and turns it into something beautiful. People often think christians are religiously devoted people who have everything together and are perfect. But that is never the case.
The word "Christian" is just a label.
It does not describe how people are physically and mentally changed forever by the presence of God. It cannot stress how many times people hit rock bottom and God lifts them up.
It cannot explain enough how real this God is. How much God wants to reach out to you and help you.
The God who is with you, the God who proves Himself to be real over and over.
The God who gives life inside your exhausted and drained bodies.
The God who gives healing, hope and a reason to keep going.
The God who saves, does miracles, and is a life-altering presence.
This is what Christianity is: We are broken people. People who fail, who make mistakes, have lives that are falling apart, commit the worst sins, hit rock bottom and fall flat on our faces. But because Jesus has died for you and me, His beautiful grace and mercy drenches us. He loves us. He carries us when we cannot take another step. He lifts us from the pit of darkness and gives us hope and tells us to follow Him, to trust Him, to believe Him, to have a relationship with him and to love those around us.
"I called on your name, Lord, from the depths of the pit. You heard my plea: “Do not close your ears to my cry for relief.” You came near when I called you, and you said, “Do not fear.”
-Lamentations 3:55-57
As it says in Lamentations, when you pray to God, He will answer. Sometimes it is not the way you have expected. Sometimes it feels like He has abandoned you. Sometimes it feels like He has not saved you. This brings us to the often wondered question, "why does He allow this to happen?" "If God is good, then why couldn't He save my son or loved ones?"
These questions are hard to answer. The enemy uses pain to try to tear us away from God and away from the truth. One can either run from God or to God. Yet, God uses that pain for good. Often God allows pain to be used in our lives to shape us, to teach us, to help us to grow stronger. Although the ememy has been defeated, he still inflicts pain. God is for you. He is fighting for you. He has given you victory. But that doesn't mean your life will always be good. Yes, God will bless you and give you joy. Life is just not perfect. No one has a perfect life. That is the beauty of it. It is painful at times, it goes up and down and is messy at times; yet something good always comes out of it. God works through the messiness. We are the clay and He is the potter and he is sculpting our hearts into the very image of Himself. He makes our messes of our heart into something beautiful, wild and powerful.
"And yet, O LORD, you are our Father. We are the clay, and you are the potter. We all are formed by your hand."- Isaiah 64:8
Even with God as their guide, christians mess up, they fall to rock bottom and they cannot stop life from falling apart. Look at Job from the Bible. He was considered to be the most blameless and holy man of his time. He was a strong, faithful man of God who was blessed with a huge family and a wonderful life. In an instant, all of that was taken from him. His beloved children were killed and his wealth was stolen. Even his wife threatened him to denounce his faith. Intense right? His life was nowhere near perfect. Job was hurting and cried out to God. He was angry and broken and felt like God was cruel and had abandoned him. We do that sometimes. I have done that. Job screamed at the sky,
"I cry to you, O God, but you don't answer. I stand before you, but you don't even look." -Job 30:20
What Job could not see was that God was putting the enemy to shame and that he would be an example to people for centuries and centuries. Even though he was broken and confused, he trusted in the Lord. Because of his trust, He was able to be even more blessed and able to inspire people through their hard times. As you can see, even though Job was a powerful follower of Christ, he went through the most painful times and he didn't feel God with Him but God was working through Him.
I cry all the time. I get angry if something doesn't go my way. I get disappointed, I fight, I am not very loving sometimes but because of His mercy at the cross, I start over, go to God and try again. You can do the same. He covers you in that grace and says, Beloved, come as you are. My grace covers you. I have forgiven you. It is okay. Let's start over together. My life is not even close to being perfect. But if I had to do everything all over again, I would chose it in a heartbeat. He is painting you with wild colors, the paint often drips and spatters making a mess but it is all part of the painting and makes the canvas so beautiful and unique. That is life.
You don't need to be perfect to be accepted by God. Your life does not need to be perfect. You just need to come as you are.
He sees no flaw in you. He loves you just as you are. Nothing could stop Him from loving you.
Life is often messy, filled with tears and laughter.
Mistakes and new things.
On high mountain-tops and low valleys.
But in the depths of His love, you shall overcome.
" Wait for the LORD; be strong and take heart and wait for the LORD." -Psalm 27:14
Be blessed knowing He is with you every step of the way.
If you ever need to talk or anything, please email me.
You are loved.
Have a beautiful day.
xox
Bri
