God can do great things with small beginnings. But… we must be open and pliable.
One of my favorite stories in the Bible is Jeremiah 18:1-6 when God sent Jeremiah down to the potter’s house. He watched as the potter re-shaped something that was marred and made it into something marvelous. The message God gave Jeremiah is that He will do the same with us, if we surrender ourselves to The Potter. God slowly, methodically, and gingerly, smooths out our marred past and imperfections and fashions us into vessels of honor.
I always tell my clients, “It’s not where you’ve been; it’s where you’re going that counts.” God takes these cracked pots and with His grace, He softens us, extracts forgiveness, and floods us with His love, before shaping and sculpting us to reflect His image.
Some of us have had difficult pasts and struggle to see beyond the pain of it. Many people allow that pain to taint their belief in a God who rescues and saves, and choose instead to give up on God because they believe He gave up on them. Many of my clients who have been sexually victimized as children ask the question, “Where was God when I needed Him?” The pain of their experience renders them angry because they feel abandoned by God. Many of them were driven to use and abuse drugs, alcohol, or sex as a means of escaping their pain that often felt unbearable. It is only after some time in therapy that they allow themselves to release the anger and pain and realize that although God didn’t stop the evil done against them – like with Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego who were in the fiery furnace – He was in it with them. And without Him, they probably wouldn’t have survived their trauma at all.
We have to remember that feelings are not facts. Just because we feel a certain way, doesn’t make it true. The fact is that the God who CANNOT lie says He will “Never leave you or forsake you” no matter what your situation looks like or feels like. (Joshua 1:5)
During difficult times, we must choose to take our mustard seed of faith and plant it in the soil of God’s Word; and like the farmer who plants his seed, we trust that beneath the surface, God is working. Trust and speak that God is doing great things in you, and plans to do great things through you, no matter what it looks like right now. Take confidence in the fact that the same God who kept you through your trials, can and will guide you to a life of peace and prosperity, because that’s HIS plan for all of His children. (Jeremiah 29:11)
Every journey begins with a first step. Take a step and trust that each day He will give you what you need to get through that day; and every day after that, one day at a time. Before you know it, you will find that you are more than a conqueror through Him who strengthens you. (Romans 8:37)
Peace and Blessings,
Gail