Whether you've been walking with the Lord for a long time or you're just beginning your walk with Him, I can guarantee that we've all had the same doubts and questions at one point or another. One question almost every Christian struggles with is "How can God use someone like me?" "I messed up when I did this…", and dealing with the guilt and shame that comes with our sin.
It's hard for us to understand and accept that God loves us despite our sinful, human nature. We feel like we need to earn His love because that's how it works with relationships of the world, but the fact of the matter is the we don't need to do anything to earn it. Even though we don't deserve His love and grace, we are given it anyways, no questions asked! All we have to do is accept Him as our Savior and walk our lives with Him. God already did everything for us by paying our debt, and He did it because He loves us and wants a relationship with us, and absolutely nothing that we do will change that!
While we do need to repent for our sins, the guilt and shame that we feel from them are not from the heart of the Father. The Greek word for repent is metanoeo, meaning "to change your mind." Repentance isn't something that is meant to make us feel bad; it's actually a gift from God. Through it, we're able to say that we know we don't have the power to go through this life on our own. We acknowledge our mistakes, repent for them, and we also have the freedom to let go of the burden of guilt and shame that comes along with our sins.
Romans 2:4 says, "Or do you show contempt for the riches of his kindness, forbearance and patience, not realizing that God's kindness is intended to lead you to repentance?" God does not judge us or look down on us whenever we make a mistake. He understands that we're imperfect people and knew our sins before we even committed them. He just wants us to repent for them, and then continue to do our best in walking with and trying to become more like HIm.
Being who we are, we tend to be very hard on ourselves, especially when it comes to the grace of God. We think that we are too wounded, beaten, damaged, or messed up to be any use to God. Well, I'm about to share with you one of the most freeing pieces of information that you can rest in.
God uses broken people to minister to a broken world!
If you still can't see the beauty in this, I'm going to give you a couple of examples of people in the Bible that were broken, but God used them anyways.
1. Saul/Paul
Saul was a man that murdered numerous amounts of Christians. After an encounter with the Lord, he changed his name to Paul and became one of the most dedicated and influential Christians. He wrote 2/3 of the New Testament and brought many people to the Lord. (1 Timothy 1:12-13)
2. King David
He committed adultery and murder, yet God still forgave him and used him to minister to others. (2 Samuel 12:13)
3. Matthew
Matthew was a tax collector; many times he would charge people more than they owed to make a profit for himself. God forgave him, and he became one of Jesus' 12 disciples. (Matthew 9:9-13)
4. Rahab
She was a prostitute, but even still, God moved in her and used her to help protect His people. (Joshua 2:4-7)
God didn't see these people in their sin and say "Oh, well they're too far gone in their sin and broken for me to use." Instead, He turned their lives around so that they may be a light for Him and an encouragement to the broken world around them. All of these broken and imperfect people realized that the only way that they would ever live the life that they wanted to was through the Lord; they couldn't do it by themselves! It's also a great display of God's love for us! There's absolutely nothing that we can do that will ever change His mind about us.
Matthew 9:12 says, "For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners." So great news! We're all sinners and fall short of the glory of the Lord, but He can and will still use us all. this means that you're not too far gone for God to still love and use you. So repent and in that, let go of all the guilt and shame that you've been carrying with you. Let the Lord use you!
