However, he has given each one of us a special gift through the generosity of Christ. Ephesians 4:7
What do we do when life doesn’t work out as we planned? My daughter turned 9 this week and unfortunately she woke up puking instead of celebrating. It was definitely a bummer and not the way we wanted her birthday to go.
Fortunately, for her, the next day she bounced back to life again. But for some of us, we can feel like the bounce back never comes. Like life is just one loooooooong bad day. Somehow our Cinderella fairy tales don’t seem so dreamy anymore and we wonder, “How did I get here?”
This world can throw punches – one hit after the next. Knocking us down again and again. Then to add insult to injury our own mind chimes in and beats us up some more. We tell ourselves horrible things – things we would never want anyone else to hear.
Oh come on admit it – are you your best cheerleader or are you more like a drill sergeant that points out every missed step? One thing I know, is the punches will always hurt worse when you turn your back on yourself when you need yourself the most.
Ephesians 4:7-12 tells us that God gave each one of us a special gift in order that we may build up others. I think the devil tries to keep us distracted with all these messy, painful, and frustrating moments to keep us from opening our gift.
My daughter may have been sick on her birthday, but we still opened gifts. Fortunately for us – none of the bad, the ugly, the shameful things that have happened to us can negate God’s gift. The bible says that God knew you before you were even born, and set you apart by appointing you to a special task. (Jeremiah 1: 5)
This is my “WHY”. I want to be a light that helps others see theirs. I don’t want anyone in my reach to miss opening their unique gift to the world. Every heart deserves to be rescued. Rescued from the pit of “I’m not enough” and encouraged to be all they were created for!
That devil – he’s sneaky. He is good at keeping us from believing God would care enough to give us a unique gift. He has convince countless hearts they are too unworthy, too damaged, too disgusting, too unloveable to be used for anything good.
Pastor Steve Furtick says these painful moments in our lives are just “scenes not the story”. God is not finished. Don’t let a scene direct your entire story. Don’t let the devil lie to you that just because something bad happened to you – a bad ending is inevitable.
NO, IT IS JUST NOT TRUE. NO MATTER WHAT HAS HAPPENED TO YOU, YOU HAVE A GIFT MEANT ONLY FOR YOU JUST WAITING TO BE OPENED!
You can change the ending to your story. Your story doesn’t have to follow the script your hurt begs you write. Sometimes the biggest fear we have to overcome is the fear of who we think we aren’t! Our messy ugly scenes can lie to us. They make us believe, “that’s all she wrote”.
Don’t let the devil convince you any longer that you don’t have a WHY! YOU have a specific WHY deep inside of YOU that only YOU can do. Be determined to not let another year pass without discovering your WHY and refuse to let the painful scenes you’ve experienced keep you from creating the ending God has been dreaming for you all along!!!
Share your WHY with the World. I’d love to hear your unique WHY below.
Be Blessed – Be a LIGHT!
“If your reason isn’t big enough, your excuses will be!” ~unknown