Day 53

What I did:

I decided to write a mission statement for the "rest of my life". I know it may sound a little silly, but countless organizations have a simple, written statement that they can refer back to whenever they embark on a new task, to see how that new goal measures up to their mission as a whole. Years ago I was a youth leader and we had a mission statement for our youth group. It brought clarity and direction to all the things we considered for our kids.

In fashioning my life's mission, I had to pray and go to the Bible for a better understanding of what that statement should be. There are so many verses that really can be mission statements in themselves, and of course, each believer is given the mission of reaching others with the message of the gospel. I wanted my mission statement to reflect where I've been and where I'm going. Just as each of us is unique in experiences and personality, so are the desires God places on our individual hearts.


What I learned:

My heart's desire is to truly understand God's path for me as His child, and part of that has been to gain more understanding about some of the things I have wondered about in my heart. I have prayed that God would give me the understanding I need and guide me, through His Word and through other believers.

Where do I fit in? So many messages we hear today about the Christian walk are for and about those Christians who have been consistently victorious from the day they first put their trust in the Lord. I remember being a teenager in my Virginia youth group and hearing a leader I admired very much saying that if you do not choose God's path from the very beginning, you miss out on His best for the rest of your life. I understand that the message we need to teach to our young people is to trust God right now, and cling to that commitment for the rest of your life. It truly is God's best plan for anyone's life. But what about those of us who have wandered far, far away from what we initially knew to be true and right? What if we have even wandered more than we have followed, allowing ourselves to be deceived over and over again? Doesn't He already know the end from the beginning? Do we ruin all of His plans and leave Him wringing His hands, wondering what to do with us when we come back into a right relationship with Him? How many times do I sin before God gives up on me completely?

I have realized that the two most important things I can do when I have questions, when my soul is unsettled, is to first pray for understanding and then go to the Bible to see what God says. In my home, there are many Bibles that belonged to my foster family. I chose to research my foster sister's Amplified Bible. June has referenced many Bible verses in the notes she kept with her Bible. One of her notes was about "sowing" and referred to some scripture verses in Hosea.

Hosea 10:12 "Sow for yourselves according to righteousness [uprightness and right standing with God]; reap according to mercy and loving-kindness. Break up your cultivated ground, for it is time to seek the Lord, to inquire for and of Him, and to require His favor, till He comes and teaches you righteousness and rains His righteous gift of salvation upon you". Hosea 11:4, 7, 8a "I drew them with cords of a man, with bands of love..." "My people are bent on backsliding from Me: though [the prophets] call them to Him Who is on high, none at all will exalt him or lift himself up [to come to Him]. How can I give you up, O Ephriam! How can I surrender you and cast you off, O Israel!" Hosea 12:6 "Therefore, return to your God! Hold fast to love and mercy, to righteousness and justice, and wait [expectantly] for your God continually!" Hosea 14:1, 2a "O Isreal, return to the Lord your God, for you have stumbled and fallen [visited by calamity] due to your iniquity. Talk with you words and return to the Lord. Say to Him, Take away all our iniquity; accept what is good and receive us graciously; so we will render our thanks..." Hosea 12:3b - 5a "For in You [O Lord] the fatherless find love, pity, and mercy. I will heal their faithlessness; I will love them freely, for my anger is turned away from [Israel]. I will be like the dew and the night mist to Israel; he shall grow and blossom like the lily..." Hosea 14:7a "They that dwell under His shade shall return; they shall revive like the grain and blossom of the vine..." Hosea 14:9 "Who is wise, that he may understand these things? Prudent, that he may know them? For the ways of the Lord are right and the [uncompromisingly] just shall walk in them, but transgressors shall stumble and fall in them." (Emphasis mine)

My answer from this passage, and from numerous examples from the Bible of Israel straying from God, sowing in sin, reaping the destruction, returning to God and receiving healing and a fresh start, is this: It is never too late, as long as we have life, to repent and live for God.

I thank God for the people who "got it" from an early age! They are the ones who model grace and Christ's righteousness by their unwavering commitment to live their lives for Christ each and every day! They are the ones who have faithfully prayed for people like me, who trip and fall so many times in life, and bear the scars as a result of repeated sin. I can say without reservation, the life that is given completely to God from the first moment of salvation to the last breath here on earth is the life which God wants for each and every believer, and that life is an example for us all to emulate!

There are others who, like me, have not been true to their faith in God - many, many others. I believe God can best use me to help encourage these others to get right with Him and stay right with Him. People need to know there's hope. God gives us hope, no matter what our past is. His focus is on our future, and He meets us right where we are. This is not a license to go and sin because of the promise of forgiveness. As in the verses from Hosea, we stumble and we live in desolation by destroying ourselves and those around us when we sin. Christ came to give us life, yet somehow we choose a kind of living "death" when we chase a life of sin.

My foster mother used to say, "While there's life, there's hope." I pray that the Lord will use me to reach the wanderers. It's time for the wanderers, the backsliders to stand up, dust themselves off and crave the Lord's guidance once again. There is no peace apart from a relationship with God. Who would better understand that than the ones who have tried to live without Him, even after receiving the knowledge of Him? There is immense relief and joy in coming home to sit once again at the Father's table! "To whom much is forgiven, the same loveth much...". Luke 7:47

There is a quote scribbled on a sticky-note on the inside of June's Bible. It says,

"Some people prefer to live within the sound of church and chapel bell,
But I want to run a rescue shop within a yard of hell".

This is my mission.

Until Tomorrow~~~Elizabeth