Reason #796

I was cleaning out my nightstand yesterday, and I came across a page of sermon notes from a few years ago. I always hang on to notes and have quite the collection of them from over the years. Truth be told, I don't know why I keep them because I hardly ever go back and look at them. It'd probably do me some good to review them every now and then. Anyway, I read over the notes I had and I stumbled across a sentence that I need to etch on my heart and remember always.

 

"God has always, only, ever known me as redeemed."

 

 

God knows the full story. He doesn't just know what has already happened, He knows exactly what is going to happen. Yet when we look at our lives, we just see a whole bunch of fragmented pieces. A lot of messed up chapters and unfinished storylines. We only see pieces and bits, and we can hardly make anything from it. We see our failures, our mess ups, and our mistakes so clearly. We see where we keep going wrong and where we got off track. And maybe, every now and then, we get a glimpse of God's plan for us but there still so much that is unknown. We know that life is a process, we know things take time, but we don't see what God sees and sometimes it feels like when He looks at us, all He must see is a big pile of disappointment.

 

But God sees the process. He sees every little step we take in the right direction because He is leading us through a life of redemption. It's not just a one time event. It is a daily occurrence that His children undergo. It is a lifetime process that never stops, a journey that we'll be on until we're made complete when we stand before His throne. Because before we came to know Him as our Savior, as we searched for truth and sought Him out, He knew the day we would call on His name and be saved. Before we faced our biggest trials, our hardest seasons, our toughest moments, He already knew not only when we would over come them but how we would over come them. Before we messed up, He already knew how He would rescue us from the mess. And before we stumbled, He already had a plan in place for how He would pick us back up and place our feet on steady ground. Every single second of the redemptive process, God has always know. He knows your beginning, knows your end, and that's exactly why He has always, only, ever known His beloved children as redeemed.

 

God doesn't see us as a big pile of disappointment. He sees us as a beautiful creation that is looking more and more like Him each day. He sees the process, knows the end result, and so the beginning doesn't really matter. He can fix, change, repair, and restore any thing we place in His hand, and He's already certain of how to do that before we ever bring it to Him. God is a redeemer. A God who sees the end. One who isn't so concerned about the beginning but rather about how it is we get to Him. Redemption is the path we walk as He pulls us closer one step at a time. And since we know He sees us in our complete fullness, from the very beginning to the very end, then we know that He sees a good thing, a good work, and we praise Him for focusing on what we're becoming rather that what we once were.

 

#796 - Because He knows how to redeem it before we even place it in His hands.

 

"In him we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will, in order that we, who were the first to put our hope in Christ, might be for the praise of his glory." - Ephesians 1:11-12