ROOTED RENEGADE

Let’s face it…none of us are perfect. We make mistakes every day, no matter how big or small they are. Some days we may make more than others. But mistakes are how we learn to do things differently. They are how we learn to take more time on a task instead of rushing through it. Or how we learn to navigate a situation differently.

Mistakes help shape us and round out those hard edges we have, like sandpaper on a wall. When we learn from them, those rough places start to become smooth. But when we keep making the same ones, that place stays rough.

Just like we make mistakes, we all have faults we are trying to overcome and limitations we are trying to move past. Part of growing is realizing that it takes time to undo things we have learned and to build new frameworks.

It takes time to learn how to follow Jesus and do it with grace instead of condemning ourselves when we fall short. I used to think I needed to hurry up and already be where I thought I needed to be in my life. Turns out God had other plans.

Learning to slow down is hard when most of your life was spent in the fast lane. Learning to lean into Jesus takes patience and consistency. Learning that limitations and mistakes don’t define you takes the Lord.

Satan will always try remind you of who you were but God reminds you of who you are.

Satan will always try condemn you for your mistakes but God reminds you that mistakes are part of learning.

Satan will always try tell you how you come up short (limitations) but God will tell you how proud He is of you for continuing to push through.

Satan will always try to tell you that you are worthless because you don’t get it right away but God tells you how worthy you are.

Satan will try everything he can to trap you into perfectionsim but God will show you that perfectionism is not what matters to Him.

Far too often we listen to the voice of satan over the voice of God because of a need to prove that we are not who we used to be. But that isn’t something we have to prove…at least to God. 

Man will tell you that you need to prove that you have changed and puts restrictions and limitations on how you can do that. If you have ever been incarcerated, then you know that when someone runs a background check they are look for what you have in your past.

They may not say it, but far too often it is how you are qualified or disqualified for something. Man has created systems that keep people trapped in their past so they can’t move forward.

But that is not God’s way. God’s way doesn’t define you by limitations, mistakes, criminal records, etc. If it did, then when the thief that hung on the cross next to Jesus asked to be remembered would have been told He wasn’t qualified to be.

We have to get to a place where we don’t allow the enemy to speak louder than God. Where everytime the enemy tries to throw up our past, mistakes or limitations, we respond with…

1. I am ___________ (fill in the blank with things that God calls you).
2. I am who God says I am.
3. I am not defined by my past or limitations.
4. God has already forgiven me.
5. God saved me from ______ and I will keep using it as a testimony of His grace and goodness.
6. I am not bound by man’s limitations or qualifiers.
7. I am a child of God and I am a joint heir with Jesus.
8. Mistakes do not get to speak louder than God.

And we need to take those arrows that are being thrown at us and return them to sender. The flaming arrows that are meant to penetrate our armor can be thrown right back where they came from. 

When we belong to Jesus, there is nothing that comes against that He is not aware of. The Word is full of keys to use against the schemes of the enemy. But we have to use them.

So the only question that remains is…..

Do you allow your past, mistakes, and limitations to define you and keep you trapped in bondage OR do you allow God, Your Creator to define you and use your past, mistakes, and limitations as testimonies to glorify Him?

Faythe