Encouragement

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When constant reminders of the past invade your thoughts, DO NOT question your usefulness in the Kingdom of God. It is Satan's ploy to derail you. Instead we need to thank God for His faithfulness and commitment to work through our mistakes. There is nothing you have ever done that will ever disqualify you from ever being used by God. We get knocked off the track; we deviate off the path, BUT we can always get refocused and back into the race.

Oftentimes when we struggle with our past, as encouragement people will quote to us, "Forget the past and look forward to what lies ahead." (Philippians 3:13b) What an awesome Scripture to keep us focused on the great things that God has planned for us, BUT let us also remember that Paul, the same writer, in 1 Timothy, referred to himself as HAVING BEEN "a chief sinner." Though he didn't stay "stuck" in his past, in condemnation, in a state of unworthiness, he DID keep in remembrance where he came from.

We undoubtedly cannot let Satan or people keep us chained to our past; marking us as unusable. But we can keep before us the humble knowing of where God has brought us from. In doing so, we will be more sensitive to others who are stuck in the very messes of life we were once in or are even presently walking through.

I want to encourage you to ask God to open doors of relational ministry so you can testify of the life change He made in your life. You too will be able to say to others, "But by the grace (the unmerited favor and blessing) of God, I am what I am..." (1 Cor 15:10a)

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