Do you ever feel like God cannot use you?
I must have felt that way without even realizing it. After I wrote my first book, I remember thinking, “God can use even me. Even after all the bad things I have done, “God can use even me.”
No matter what you’ve done in your life, God can use you. Sometimes we don’t feel like God can use us because we never fully forgave ourselves, or we never really understood how much God really does love us. Our forgiving ourselves really has nothing to do with God forgiving us.
I think we struggle with forgiving ourselves because we tend to look at our past. We remember many of the mistakes we’ve made along the way. You are not perfect. You never will be, and it really is okay.
Maybe you feel like you’re working to pay a debit card. I used to feel a little like that myself. If you’ve accepted Jesus, nothing you did saved you, and nothing you do keeps you saved. Serve out of love. Serve out of gratitude. But serve because you want to, and not because you feel you must. It is an honor and a privilege to serve the Lord. It is awesome to be used by Him.
Paul, formally Saul, was going around persecuting Christians before Jesus appeared to him.
Then Ananias answered, Lord, I have heard by many of this man, how much evil he hath done to thy saints at Jerusalem: And here he hath authority from the chief priests to bind all that call on thy name. But the Lord said unto him, Go thy way: for he is a chosen vessel unto me, to bear my name before the Gentiles, and kings, and the children of Israel: For I will shew him how great things he must suffer for my name’s sake. And Ananias went his way, and entered into the house; and putting his hands on him said, Brother Saul, the Lord, even Jesus, that appeared unto thee in the way as thou camest, hath sent me, that thou mightest receive thy sight, and be filled with the Holy Ghost.
Acts 9:13-17
The Lord said that Paul was a chosen vessel unto Him. Paul did not go around looking back at his past, but rather Paul went forward standing on the Word and serving the Lord. Paul believed Jesus, and Paul became who God said he was. Paul accepted and stepped into that plan that God had for his life.
LIFE APPLICATION
Key Focal Verse:
Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created.
Revelation 4:11
Today’s challenge is to forgive yourself. Remember Paul, and know that no matter what you’ve done, God can use even you! Let go and let God define you. If you know what God’s plan is for your life, go beyond just being aware of it. Bravely step into that plan, and act on it as the Lord leads you to do.