I have more understanding than all my teachers, for Your testimonies are my meditation. (Psalm 119:99)
God will take the simple and through them confound the wisdom of the wise. He uses the ones that everyone will cast aside as useless. He uses the youngest, the least educated, the least to succeed and the looked over. God’s strength is magnified in our weakness for when we are weak, He is made strong!
The experiences we go through in this life are not merely meant to be written as a family history at the end of our lives but rather as examples of what God can do to a life that demonstrates His glory. God uses all our failures, heartaches, trials, successes and triumphs to benefit others and help others make it through similar situations. Not only does God set us free from bondage, but He uses that very bondage to shoot us into our destiny in setting the captives free, binding up the broken hearted and bringing liberty to those who are in chains.
God is amazing and He is no respecter of persons. In all your getting, get understanding. Ask and it shall be given unto you, seek and you shall find. When we truly know Jesus, a trade happens. We give Him our nature of death and He gives us His life. We give Him our sin, He gives us His righteousness. We give Him our confusion and in return we receive knowledge and peace.
Do not discredit your testimony. Whatever you have gone through or are going through in life is usable by God to glorify Him. We are all testimonies in one way or another. In order to recognize the value we carry within ourselves we need to ask the Lord for understanding so that we can see what He sees, know what He knows and do what He desires.
You do not equal what you are tempted with or what you have come out of. If I were to see myself as who I used to be, I would not have the impact I now have on the lives of others. I see myself as the righteousness of God in Christ even though at times I am tempted with the things of the past. Those temptations have less and less power each time you say no to them!
Some things will remain in our lives in order to test our faithfulness to God. In Judges 3:3-4, it tells us,” These nations are: the five lords of the Philistines and all the Canaanites and the Sidonians and the Hivites who lived in Mount Lebanon, from Mount Baal-hermon as far as Lebo-hamath. 4 They were for testing Israel, to find out if they would obey the commandments of the Lord, which He had commanded their fathers through Moses.
If you are still battling desires that are not in line with God’s way then fight them. They may very well be a testing to see if you will truly follow hard after God. God does not tempt us but He allows us to be tested. Those tests are designed to show us our strength, not defeat us and push us backward. If you look at this in the proper perspective, you will walk in victory as you call upon the Lord for His help. Through all these tests, ask Him for more understanding and He will give it to you!
Pastor Michael Cannatello
lazarusministry.com
