The flaming desire to be rid of every unholy thing and to put on the likeness of Christ at any cost is not often found among us. We expect to enter the everlasting kingdom of our Father and to sit down around the table with sages, saints and martyrs; and through the grace of God, maybe we shall; yes maybe we shall. But for the most of us it could prove at first an embarrassing experience. Ours might be the silence of the untried soldier in the presence of the battle-hardened heroes who have fought the fight and won the victory and who have scars to prove that they were present when the battle was joined.4
The first time I shared my testimony was at the Brantley center, a homeless shelter in New Orleans. Both my parents showed up to hear me preach, mainly out of curiosity to experience this new-found faith I was professing. After leaving the service, my dad, with good intentions, pulled me aside and dissuaded me from ever sharing my past again. He thought that since I was now changed by Christ there was no need to revisit past sins. I appreciated his concern for not idealizing my previous life; however, I felt as if God wanted me to share my testimony with others struggling with the same issues. Am I suggesting that you should glamorize or celebrate sins from the past? By no means. However, your story may be the connection point for someone struggling with similar struggles you’ve experienced victory over.
Remember, God never wastes a hurt in our life. He takes the mess we’ve made and redeems it in the form of a message we can share with others around us. He brings us through testing in life to give us a testimony. Our testimonies are evidence of the power of God in our lives. People may be able to debate Scripture with you or critique theological issues, but they can’t argue with a changed life.
No One Is Beyond the Reach of God’s Grace
Regardless of what you’ve done or who you’ve wronged, God can forgive you and redeem you. This motivates us never to stop praying for those who are far from God. His grace is greater than all our sin.
If we imagine God as a builder, then we, those whom he created in his image, are constantly under construction. God’s always in a building project working on us. Paul emphasized this point in Philippians 1:6 when he said, “I am sure of this, that he who started a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.”
Listen to the hope contained in these words. No matter how good it is now, no matter how terrible, no matter how far away from improvement you may feel, the final chapter of your life is yet to be written. God is still working on you, and the best is yet to come—it will be finished on the day of Christ Jesus. Since God wants to do so much with us, we have to be sure we are allowing him to do his work in us. It is dangerous to settle for mediocrity. I shared my testimony at our Celebrate Recovery ministry gathering one night and someone stopped me in the back afterward to comment on my message. He said, “I’m not who I used to be, I’m not who I want to be, but God’s still working on me.”
Don’t give up on those whom you have been praying for. Extend the love of Christ the way God has showered you with it. Every one of us is in need of God’s grace and mercy. Jerry Bridges said, “Our worst days are never so bad that you are beyond the reach of God’s grace. And your best days are never so good that you are beyond the need of God’s grace.”5
One Day at a Time
The best advice I can give you is be patient. You didn’t get to where you are overnight, and God’s not going to fix it immediately. Shortly after becoming a Christian, Brother Tim took our first discipleship group through a little book called The Green Letters by Miles Stanford. The words of his book that caused me to pause were these: “It seems that most believers have difficulty in realizing and facing up to the inexorable fact that God does not hurry in His development of our Christian life.”6 Later in his book, Stanford underscores the importance of patience: “A student asked the president of his school whether he could not take a shorter course than the one prescribed. ‘Oh yes,’ replied the President, ‘but then it depends on what you want to be. When God wants to make an oak, He takes a hundred years, but when He wants to make a squash, He takes six months.’”7
Squash-like growth entice all of us because it’s instant gratification. The results are immediate. The wait is short; the payoff is quick. However, God is never in a rush to do anything. In fact, the only time we see Him in a hurry is in Luke 15. When the prodigal son comes to his senses, the father (i.e., God) runs to embrace his repentant son.
Other than in isolated incidents, you will be hard-pressed to identify a time when God is in a rush. It took thirteen years before Joseph in Genesis was elevated to the right hand of the Pharaoh. If he had been released from prison when the cupbearer had promised, it is
