So the other night we were watching some old House of Payne episodes. Those of you with kids understand you don’t always watch things right away but anyway.

The episode we were watching showed Janine’s former dealer coming to her for help. This man had ruined her life, broken up her family, and caused many other problems for everyone. He came to her because he knew she had turned her life around, and wanted a friend to be with him as he passed away dying of AIDS. What really stuck out to me was her ability to forgive him, and pour God’s love into this main that had caused so much pain. But what stuck out the most was the speach he gave to her; he applauded her for getting clean but told her that the drugs were still in her blood. It seemed at first that he was trying to pull her back in, but then he tells her to keep going to her meetings, praying, reading the bible. She needed to do whatever it took to be strong not to get hooked again. Because one day she would be faced with the trial and temptation that could ruin her life again.

This rings so true for all of us as Christians.  No one has ever said that becoming a Christian would be easy or that walking the walk is easy.  We all have our struggles, those things from our past that just won’t let up on us.  A lot of times it is the newer Christians that struggle the most, you give your life to God, but you still have all your old friends.  You feel that you can push them to change, but it is easier for them to change you.  It takes becoming stronger in your faith, praying and reading God’s word.  It is here that you get God’s real inspiration for your life.  Many times you may read and nothing  stand out, but it is that one time, when things aren’t going right that God will speak to you through His word or even from an unexpected source.

It is the way that God speaks to us sometimes that takes me off guard.  God works in the most unexpected ways.  He is able to use people that you wouldn’t expect to change your life and teach you lessons.  Some of the most influential people in the Bible were, murderers, adulterers, doubters.  Moses, David, Peter, all led the people in many different ways and when you look at their past, you would think there is no way God will use them. But just like you and I, God qualifies the Called instead of calling the qualified.

If you feel God pulling you out of your comfort zone, Listen.  If God is telling you to step away from remnants of your past life, Do it.  If God wants you to learn something, He will show you.  Listen for God and He will direct your path.

2 Peter 2:7-9 “⁷and if He rescued righteous Lot, oppressed by the sensual conduct of unprincipled men⁸(for by what he saw and heard that righteous man, while living among them, felt his righteous soul tormented day after day by their lawless deeds),⁹then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from temptation, and to keep the unrighteous under punishment for the day of judgment”

God will protect and guide all of us.  He will draw us out of the temptations of this world when we look to Him.