It's been a long time since I've written anything on here, but I have a pretty awesome story for this morning...
On my way to work this morning I was listening to K-Love, just like every other morning, but I thought back to a friend I had my freshman year of college. She was one of the first people I met in college because she was one of my suite-mates. I'll spare her name, but she is a great person. She is honest and fun and we had a lot of great talks and a lot of great times together. One thing I regret though, is that I never was bold enough in my faith at that time to really try and convict her or share with her much. I may have a little at a time, but she wasn't really all that open or perceptive to it. She lived her life and I think her heart was far from knowing Jesus. I'm sitting here today, taking partial blame for that, because I didn't really do much to help her to know Jesus.
So... she had commented on one of my pictures on facebook several months ago, which is why I was thinking about her this morning. After my freshman year I moved into an apartment with my sister and I may have seen my friend in passing but we didn't really spend any time together like we used to. So like people naturally do, we grew apart. It's funny though, because some people you grow apart from and the relationship just totally dies, but with her, I had pure joy every time we did meet in passing. I loved her as a friend and she was just a true and honest friend.
Well, on my drive to work this morning thinking about her, I was thinking about the fact that I never really did share much with her about Jesus and pondering on how I could now almost 6 years later when we've grown so far apart. I had several thoughts cross my mind about how perceptive she would be to it. I know how she lived her life back then, but I don't now. We were so drastically different, yet somehow we still were great friends. I was the goody-goody girl and she was not. I was thinking of how she would react if I did try now to lead her to Jesus. One thought I had is something that you hear from a lot of people. A lot of people think or say "you know what I've done. God won't forgive me." I worry that this might be her response to me when I do try and talk to her about it, so I was thinking and praying of a good way to reach her.
I have a short 15 minute commute to work, and about half-way to work, the Lord for it on my heart that I should share something from Luke with her. Where in Luke and why Luke I did not know. But it became very clear within about 5 minutes...
The morning hosts on K-Love brought up the question: "Have you ever failed?" Of course our natural response is, duh, of course I've failed. We are all sinners and we fail every day. It's only by God's grace that we're forgiven. That was the response of everyone on the radio show and of myself. Here's what he shared after that...
He had spoken with a pastor friend from Virginia who had posed that very question to him. "Have you failed?" Of course, like me and the others his response was quite easily "yes". The pastor asked "are you sure about that?" Here's what the pastor had to say... He quoted from... of all books.... Luke!!
He told the story of how Peter betrayed Jesus by denying him. However... in Luke 22: 32 Jesus says "But I have prayed for you, Simon (Peter), that your faith may not fail." Jesus himself prayed that Peter's faith would not fail. Even though Peter denied Christ three times, his faith in Jesus never failed and Jesus forgave Peter. As it says in Romans 8:28 "And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose." God worked this situation for good and Peter was forgiven. Peter may have wronged Jesus by denying him, but his faith never failed.
We can look at our life in the same way. We "fail" in our hearts every day by sin. But our faith is renewed by Christ and we are forgiven for all of our sins and failures. No matter how big or how small.
I just thought it was awesome how this story was brought o me this morning. God obviously very clearly sent this message to me this morning. For myself and to share with others!
So, may God bless you today, and may you know that no matter what you do, no matter how big of a "failure" you think you may be... Jesus loves you and he will forgive you for anything and everything you've ever done if you just ask him into your heart and earnestly desire his forgiveness, compassion and love. He is Lord after all, and he's got plenty to go around!
