Our history

Friends, Beth Moore has done it again. Or should I say that GOD has done it again…once more, through Beth Moore. I am only 2 weeks into the Esther study, but wow. It is so good! This morning’s video session has me bubbling over with thoughts in my head and I had to come here and share!

Here is the quote that really got me going:

“You cannot amputate your history from your destiny.”

Ok, go back and read it again. This had to sink in with me for a minute. What Beth is trying to say here is that NO MATTER WHAT our past holds, we can’t change it…but God can and WILL use it. Our history is what God uses to create our destiny. Our history…the good and the bad…was and is in the hands of a Sovereign God who loves you and has a plan for you. (Remember Jeremiah 29:11??)

In God, your past and your future share the same root – JESUS!. Jesus will take the ugly, stained pictures from our past and turn it into a beautiful destiny that only HE could imagine or create. He uses our past to teach us, to grow us…to redeem us.

In our lesson this morning, we saw how God took Esther – who remember had suffered the loss of BOTH parents – and brought forth her glorious destiny. We often read the story of Esther and forget that this was a young girl who had no parents! Such a tragic story, yet God used her past to make her into what He wanted her to be. He used her past to bring about the purpose He had for her life.

In the video, Beth Moore used the scripture 1 Cor. 1:26-31.

“Brothers, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many of noble birth. But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things – and the things that are not – to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him. It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God – that is our righteousness, holiness and redemption. Therefore, as it is written: let him who boasts boast in the Lord.”

This verse brings a lot of encouragement and hope to me. The majority of the time (ok, all the time) I feel very UN-wise. I’m definitely not influential, not of noble birth. I am often foolish and know I am so very weak. But He chooses me. He chooses me, the weak of this earth, to bless…to use…to bring glory to Him.

It almost seems impossible. Too good to be true. How can God use me after all I’ve been through? After all the mistakes I have made? But, as Beth Moore said this morning, God is attracted to the weak because in those weak vessels there is room for HIS strength.