Mercy : Jonathan Crabtree
I have had a lot of key things happen in my life over the last couple of days, a Christian camp with some of my best friends, amazing guest speaker who could possibly have changed my life forever by his conduct and life story and so much other stuff that I don't have space or time to mention. At times like this when you are full of mixed emotion you can find yourself looking back on your life and thinking about how you were compared to how you are now. God does amazing works in our lives daily and builds us up as people daily, but sometimes it takes a lifetime (or what feels that long) to be able to notice the change. We need to take time out of our busy schedule to look back on our lives and look at what god has done for us! I cant bare to think where I would be without Jesus and all the people I have met thanks to him. I was a depressed lonely teenager with no real friends, no one to turn to, no real confidence, no self esteem, each day was a struggle, and yet now I am free of all of that, I have strong friendships, a god who loves me unconditionally, a new found confidence in myself and Im having the chance to help people out of the place that I was in less than 4 years ago! Our God is a god who switches lives around! We can find new Identity in christ and new mercy through him every day. The thing is when we look back we don't have to look back in regret, all the past is washed away and we never need to live up to how things have always been. I could easily stayed in the shell that I was in before, said to myself "this is what people think of me, I should stay that way" but no, God says we shouldn't listen to what people say, but what he says, we need to put the past behind us and move on to our promised plan that god has for our lives!
I was reading my bible in 1 John this week and a verse clearly stood out for me, It was 1 Peter 2:10, it says "Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy." Notice how it says, "Once", "But" you were lonely, you did feel insecure... but now you are the people of god, you have a purpose, belonging, a family. No reflection on the past, just focussing on now, and what is to come. We need to look at life like this!
My prayer for you is that you would come to realise your new found Identity in Gods family, that you would leave behind the past but not forget it, remember where you came from and know where god took you from and where he has taken you too! Amen.
This is a song I wrote about Gods mercy. Mercy, By JC Music & Saphire Bell
Thank you for sharing this!
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