I remember when I gave my life to the Lord at the age of fifteen.  Yes, I had already known from a young age who Jesus was and believed wholeheartedly that he was alive and active in my life.  I felt like I was on fire for God, and ready to take on life with a new and improved outlook. It was at a special youth night, with an out of town guest speaker who I found to be really good to listen to. It was a night which I still remember to this day.

Sometimes, when I think back, I think about the passion that was ignited in me that night, and how I thought that my life would simply be on cruise control from there on. Because I believed in Jesus, and He loved me, and that was that, life - sorted!  But, boy oh boy, was I naive in thinking that that’s how being a Christian in this world would work out. No siree! Because although I had a new freedom within a life that I accepted Christ into, it didn’t protect me from the world around me that would eventually tempt me, push me to my limits, break me, and heal me - only to break me over and over again.  Just when I thought I had everything sorted out, something would then come along and tell me otherwise.

My journey since giving my life to Christ has definitely been a whirlwind ride, and I can guarantee that it will continue to be one, as time passes.  But although I may have felt unprepared when certain situations came my way, one thing that I am able to recognize today is that God was and always will be with me every step of the way.  Through the good, the bad, the ugly - each and every time, He was present.

I can’t even count how many times I have messed up since making that decision that night. And it’s sometimes hard to even fathom that God himself could forgive me and see something in me that was worth fighting for.  However, God is a God of grace and forgiveness, and He sees through all the bad decisions we have made, and continues to love us anyway. If he doesn’t give up on us, then we shouldn’t give up on ourselves either.

Philippians 1:6 says “being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.”

Sometimes, it’s hard to see where God is taking us when our lives go down a different path than what we expected.  We sometimes stuff up along the way, which can leave us feeling hopeless and not good enough. However, God is constantly working within us and making us new again when these things happen.  In the book of Philippians, Paul very much believes in the people and sees them through the eyes of faith and not of the flesh, where our sin and deceitfulness become most evident to us. Instead, he encourages them to see themselves in a different light. 

“Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it.  But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead”(NIV).  

- Phil. 3:13

Yesterday has already come and gone, and we cannot take back what has taken place.  But when we accept Christ into our lives, we then know that through his grace and mercy, we are forgiven. We are given new hope for tomorrow.  This encourages us to know that a new day is ahead, and getting hung up on the ‘could of, should of, and would of’ mentality would only leave us feeling stuck in a place where we cannot grow.  God is all-knowing of what we have done and where we are in our lives, and He wants us to continue to keep looking ahead, and moving, running into his freedom. 

In order to continually keep working on ourselves in being the best version we can possibly be, we must come to recognize that we are always going to be a work in progress.  Perfection is not attainable, and we mustn’t keep thinking that in order to please God and do his good work in the world, that we need to be perfect in all we do. It will never happen.  We don’t need to try and do something visibly significant in order to gain his love and acceptance. He loves us unconditionally, just how we are right now.

Another way we can look at it is that instead of trying endlessly to gain His approval and win His favour, we are to understand that our relationship with Him is more important.  And it is through Him working within us that is radically changing us from the inside out, and our lives become that of what we strive to live out. We need him in every aspect of our lives. He designed us all uniquely the way he wanted us to be. Therefore, it is purely that notion that allows us to be worthy and valuable in his eyes.

All throughout life we are constantly changing and transforming.  Sometimes for the better, and sometimes not. But wherever we are in our journey, God is at work, and present. 

In the New Testament, we read about the twelve disciples who were Jesus’ followers and worked with Him closely, sharing the good news with the people.  You can only imagine how they would feel after working alongside him, learning from Him and being within His presence for some time, that His departure from the world would be a massive adjustment for them all.  This would have forced them into navigating how to live out a life that exemplified him within the world, but without him being here. Throughout the process, the ongoing transformation within them and their relationship with God were evident.  And just as in our lives when changes are often happening, we too are continuously being renewed. God is always refining and molding us even in those times when we may not think much of ourselves.

If there is anyone who can complete something within us and through us, God can.  God knows what we are capable of doing in this world and we can only begin to imagine where it starts.  There is no limit to what God can do with us, and we must put our faith in him that he will always see us through. 

We are blessed beyond measure, and just because we aren’t perfect, doesn’t mean we are less than. We are blessed because we are loved by God no matter what we have done, where we have come from, or where we are going.  We are blessed because we have been anointed by God, and deemed to do great work in the world for him. We are blessed because we are a work in progress, and that means we are always looking forward, into the direction where Christ has called us to go.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Jacinda has travelled internationally spreading the word of God with her performing arts. She has a continual passion to share hope into a world of hurt and darkness, and through her story of struggle and redemption, prays that others will also come to know Gods amazing love. Jacinda was the founder of the online faith publication 'Hearts of Gold Magazine' and now currently runs the blog 'The Contented Life' (the-contented-life@blogspot.com) - dedicated to all things relating to motherhood. She has a Bachelor in Theology, Diploma in Christian Studies, and a Certificate in Performing Arts. She is now a full-time stay at home mum to a beautiful little boy, currently residing in a small town called Thames, located in the beautiful coromandel of New Zealand.