I don’t know what your story is. I don’t know the battle you’re facing. I don’t know what your dealing with that’s keeping you from freely accepting what God is offering you. I don’t know what it is that’s making you feel like you don’t stand a chance of God actually loving you and forgiving you. I don’t know what might be causing you to believe you are too far gone for God to redeem.
Maybe you struggle with pornography. Maybe you’re dabbling in drugs. Maybe your battle is with lying. Maybe you’re living a promiscuous lifestyle. Maybe you’re a thief who’s even gone so far as to steal from your own family. Maybe you’re eaten up with a bitter attitude. Maybe you are at rock bottom because of all that some form of addiction has taken from you. Maybe you’re that person who has grown up in church, but still doesn’t really know the Savior for yourself. Maybe you’re that person who everyone around you seems to think you have it all together, but you know you don’t. Maybe you’re that person who looks at those around you and thinks, “Well, I have it more together than those people, so I must be okay.”
Whatever you think your story is, there’s more to it than you realize. That’s not all there is to you or to your story. Wanna know how I know that? God’s Word. It’s filled with people like you and like me.
Did you know that there are prostitutes in the Bible? Liars, thieves, murderers? And those who grew up with all the right knowledge and actions.
Jacob deceived his father and cheated his brother out of his inheritance.
Moses was a murderer.
Rahab was a prostitute.
David was someone who coveted another man’s wife, planned the murder of an innocent man, and committed adultery.
The Pharisees grew up knowing the Word of God but were blinded by their own knowledge and pious actions to their need for a Savior.
The Samaritan woman at the well had been married and divorced five times and was currently living with a man who was not her husband.
Peter denied Christ three times.
The thief on the cross chose a lifestyle that led him to execution.
Saul (who became Paul) made it his mission to persecute those who believed in Jesus.
They’re all there. Why do you think that is? Why do you think God included all of those types of people in His Word?
Because He had hope to offer each and every one of them. The same hope He has to offer you. They’re in there because God loved them and wanted them just like He loves and wants you. He took each and everyone of those people and redeemed them and their stories.
God used Jacob to father the twelve men from whom the the twelve tribes of Israel would come.
God used Moses to lead the Israelites out of the bondage they were in in Egypt. God used Rahab to save the Israelite spies God had sent into her land and made her a part of the lineage of Christ.
God used David to begin preparing for God’s temple to be built and to establish peace for a time for Israel.
God used Joseph of Arimathea, who was a member of the Sanhedrin yet believed in Jesus, to ask for the body of Jesus after his crucifixion and place the body in a borrowed tomb.
God used the woman at the well to go and call other people to Him.
God used Peter to lead the early church after Jesus’ death and resurrection.
God used the thief on the cross to recognize the Savior hanging beside him and then welcomed him into Kingdom.
God used Paul to preach the gospel message and establish churches in the known world.
YOU ARE NOT ALONE. We all have a story. And every one has portions and even whole parts of their stories that are not pretty.
I don’t know what your story is, but Jesus has plans to meet you there. You don’t have to have it all together before you meet Him.
“Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy-laden and overburdened, and I will give you rest. [I will ease and relieve and refresh your souls.]” -Matthew 11:28, AMPC
I don’t know what your story is, but there’s better to come.
“For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.” -Ephesians 2:10, NASB
I don’t know what your story is, but there’s more to your story than you know, more than you can see.
He has made everything beautiful in its time. He also has planted eternity in men’s hearts and minds [a divinely implanted sense of a purpose working through the ages which nothing under the sun but God alone can satisfy], yet so that men cannot find out what God has done from beginning to end. -Ecclesiastes 3:11, AMPC
To grant [consolation and joy] to those who mourn in Zion—to give them an ornament (a garland or diadem) of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of joy instead of mourning, the garment [expressive] of praise instead of a heavy, burdened, and failing spirit—that they may be called oaks of righteousness [lofty, strong, and magnificent, distinguished for uprightness, justice, and right standing with God], the planting of the Lord, that He may be glorified. -Isaiah 61:3, AMPC
There’s a place for you in the Father’s house! Let Him change the ashes of your story into something beautiful!
Redeemed Hope Dweller 
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