I have often beat myself up with my past and the regrets. I haven't always made the best choices in life. There have been many life lessons learned along the way. Failures and weaknesses have caused me to trip into self-doubt and shame.
When I hear someone say, "Oh but we all make mistakes" I have to admit that my little mind has reverted to the "But not me, I'm not supposed to mess up or make mistakes." For some reason we put oursleves on this tiny pedestal of self-righteousness causing us to feel like failures if we stumble.
Well let me just tell you what I have learned from that...
In God's eyes, when we start evaluating self based on regrets, shame and our past, we are giving ourselves the focus and removing it from God. God is jealous and isn't willing to share focus with anyone-not even oursleves. Focusing on self is making yourself a god. There is only One God worthy of praise.
As humans, it is very difficult not to get wrapped up in wanting to be mistake free and perfect. Here's a nugget of news for you...you will never be perfect this side of heaven. Ha! How's that for bursting a bubble?!? A look in the mirror as I say that hurts....just hurts. Lol
Jesus enters stage right...
As a matter of fact-we would not be able to go to heaven if it weren't for Jesus and His perfect cleansing blood. We can never be holy enough to come face to face with God without the intercession of Christ. God gave strict instructions to Moses not to even allow the people to touch the boundaries of the mountain that He would be coming down to. Not even the boundaries! And then they had to be clean, washing their clothes and preparing for His arrival. Could you imagine someone coming to visit your house, you getting cleaned up and dressed but had to stand behind the back fence while they entered your house?
"Even the priests who regularly come near to the Lord must purify themselves so that the Lord does not break out and destroy them." Exodus 19:22 (NLT) The holiest of the people were not even holy enough to meet with the Lord on Mt. Sinai. God had very strict orders for Moses that only allowed for him and Aaron to come up onto the mountain.
Through Jesus, our intercessor, we will live with God. Live WITH Him. Doesn't that just give you goose bumps?!? While on earth God is using His precious Holy Spirit in our sanctification process. He lives in us through His Spirit in order to peel layers away, cleaning us up in preparation for our big meeting with God.
When we accept Jesus into our hearts and believe that He is our way to God, we are automatically given that ticket to heaven. However, let me give an example here: Let's say you are getting ready for a big date with someone you really want to impress. I am talking about the person you feel like you want to spend the rest of your life with. They give you that ooey, gooey feeling of warm, tingly "love" sickness (my husband still does that, blush) Would you just dress in ratty blue jeans or pajamas and meet at the door with no makeup and hair all goobered? Of course not! You want to be as shined up and perfect as humanly possible.
To my point...Jesus has made the way, but don't you want to he shined up and as perfect as humanly possible for your big date with God? I do. God has worked in me through his Holy Spirit to peel away layers of ick in order to make me cleaner for the face to face meeting. God says come just as you are but I certainly want to show that I put every effort into giving Him my best.
If we take the lessons God gives us through our failures and really use them in growth, He can help us clean our garments and get shined up for our big date. We shouldn't focus on the past and the regrets, instead, focus on God and let Him use the bad for His good. Our bad, becomes His opportunity for our growth in Him and possibly someone else's. The song "Diamonds out of Dust" is playing in my head right now. :-) I want to be a diamond, don't you?
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