Momentum: How To Ignite Your FaithSample

GOD NEVER WASTES A HURT Going through security at the airport can be about as much fun as a root canal. You probably know the drill. You check in at the counter and then head off to the security line where you put your carry-on bag through the security machine. A security agent carefully scans your personal items looking for anything dangerous. Honestly, it can be a little uncomfortable for someone to look inside our baggage. Every one of us carries around a backpack full of stuff we would rather keep hidden. Past hurts, painful and shameful experiences, destructive habits, broken relationships, secret sin, and unfulfilled dreams. Even a great Bible character like Moses had a backpack. Moses was born a Hebrew, but became the adopted son of Pharaoh’s daughter. He lived a pampered and promising life, until one moment of rage changed his life forever. One day, at the age of forty, he saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew. Enraged, Moses did the unthinkable: he murdered the Egyptian and hid his body. What Moses thought he’d done in secret became known the very next day, and he had to run for his life. In one day he went from being a favored son in the palace to being a fugitive in the desert. All we know of the next forty years is that Moses got married, had a son, and tended sheep for his father-in-law. By the time God met him in the burning bush, Moses was eighty years old. He had a backpack full of “stuff” that made him feel inadequate for the assignment God gave him of leading the people out of the bondage of Egypt. All of Moses’ past—the good, the bad, the ugly—had been used by a sovereign God to prepare Moses for his divine assignment. Moses didn’t yet understand that his past had prepared him for his future. The same is true for you. God sovereignly uses your parents, your background, your physical DNA, your hardships, your talents, and even your failures. Sometimes the experiences we are most ashamed of are the very things God wants to use as our ministry to others. WHAT ABOUT YOU? What about your past gives clues to your gifts and passions? Remember, God never wastes a hurt. Today’s Takeaway Your past experiences are the breadcrumbs leading you to discover God’s plan for your future.