By Chris WittsTuesday 30 Jan 2024Morning Devotions with Chris WittsFaithReading Time: 1 minute
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Transcript:
Have you ever thought to yourself ‘my life is an absolute mess’? I’ve got no idea how to fix it.
When you reach this point in, it can be scary and confusing. You don’t know what to do. You may even be frightened. That mess is so big it can’t be handled.
Some people believe they’ve made a mess of their own lives. That because of a few mistakes, their whole life has been messed up.
Do you feel today that you’ve made a mess of things? You may have made plans that never eventuated You may feel like a failure.
There is hope
But I want to say, don’t despair. You’re part of the human family. You don’t have to stay in the mess because sometimes circumstances occur that are beyond our control. Most successful people will admit to you they’ve experienced setbacks and discouragement before they achieve their goals. Most of us have made wrong choices in life. We’ve had to put up with the consequences. But if we acknowledge our mistakes, we’re on the way to getting out of the mess. Making a mistake does not make a failure.
Thomas Edison said he’d tried everything while working on his inventions, but failure never discouraged him. He was disappointed after 10,000 experiments when a storage battery failed and his response was, ‘I haven’t failed, I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work’. We can focus on the problem at hand and say to ourselves, ‘what went wrong? If only I should have.’ Holding on to these negatives increases a sense of discouragement and prevents constructive change.
How will you respond to failure?
We can respond to life’s failures in whatever way we like. If we seek for God’s guidance, he can erase those negatives from our mind and replace them with his peace and calm. Psalm 37:24 says, ‘Though he stumble, he will not fall for the Lord upholds him with his hand.’ Philippians 4 says, ‘I can do everything through him who gives me strength’.
A sensible plan is to put God first in all areas of your life. He will sharpen your mind. He’ll help you get through problems with a power that you’ve never had before. Pray to him for spiritual insight and understanding. Believe that you will succeed and commit your life to him every day.
Important decisions can’t be rushed. If a nagging unease persists, the situation probably needs to be reconsidered. And if you’re willing to admit that you’ve messed up, you’re a prime candidate for an encounter with Jesus. In fact, he specialises in ministering to messed up people.
Jesus is here
And one of the many things I love about Jesus is that he gravitates towards those who are ignored, ridiculed, hated and rejected. Just read the New Testament. Why not set short and long term goals for the future and commit yourself to seeing them through?
Nothing can take the place of persistence and patience as you achieve your goals. The Japanese have a proverb that says, ‘fall seven times stand up eight times’. Isn’t it true we can learn much from daily experience? We can learn from others and from our own mistakes. Reading some helpful material, taking in new information will help, and from this wisdom we can develop the ability to look at problems and opportunities and learn from them because you’re never too old to learn.
The Bible has a special promise from God in Jeremiah 29. I know the plans I have for you declares the Lord. Plans to prosper you not to harm you. Plans to give you hope. And then you will call upon me and come and pray to me. I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. As we trust in the Lord, he will do his work and you’ll be amazed at how he works things out for you. If you feel today a sense of hopelessness or disappointment, God can bring a new touch of his love and purpose into your life.
I don’t know what mess you’re in today, but I do know through faith that God can turn your life completely around. He can turn your mess into something beautiful if you surrender all of yourself to him. And that includes your mess. Surrendering to God takes courage, and when we surrender our mess, we must remember that God doesn’t always take our mess and tie it up neatly in a pretty bow with a happy ending. What he wants to do is use our mess, use our story of pain, heartaches and struggles to comfort, encourage and to help others.
Let’s pray
Dear Lord, so often I have made mistakes. I’ve been in a mess and somehow, Lord, through other people and circumstances, you have come and helped me. I pray especially for that person who may be in the middle of a crisis. May you come to them with your power and your touch. I pray in the name of Jesus, Amen.