Titus 3:1-7
“Remind them to be
subject to rulers and authorities, to obey, to be ready for every
good work, to speak evil of no one, to be peaceable, gentle, showing
all humility to all men. For we ourselves were also once
foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving various lusts and pleasures,
living in malice and envy, hateful and hating one another. But
when the kindness and the love of God our Savior toward man appeared,
not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to
His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and
renewing of the Holy Spirit,
whom He poured out on us abundantly through
Jesus Christ our Savior, that having been justified by His grace we
should become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.”
This passage is such an
exact definition of what my life was a year ago, what the
Lord has done in the last 9 months, and now what I am
called to do. I was foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving
various lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful and
hating others. This list is progressive. It started with being
foolish because I wasn't grounded in the Lord and His Word. That led
to being disobedient. Disobedient to my mom, to my pastor and most
importantly to the Lord. Because of these first two, I opened myself
up to being deceived. And I was. I was lied to and manipulated. Not
only to do the things that I did but I was also deceived by Satan to
believe that I was too far gone to be saved. I believed that I was
too big of a sinner and that God didn't want me anymore. From there,
I fell hard into serving my lusts and pleasures. This led to living
in malice and envy of those around me that were involved in the same
sin. We were all selfish and angry. This meant being hateful and
hating each other. I hated everything. I was so unhappy and I hated
my life. I hated those that hurt me. I hated what I was doing. I
hated being alive.
But when I joined IGNITE,
I experience God's love and kindness. I learned that He loved me no
matter what I had done and He had plans for me and wanted me to come
to repentance and experience His forgiveness so that He could use me.
I wasn't saved by anything that I did. There was no work that I could
have done that would have saved me. My salvation was a gift given
through His mercy. He washed me and filled me with the Holy Spirit.
This wasn't just a once filled type of thing. He poured His Spirit on
me abundantly, and this through Jesus. Because of Jesus' sacrifice, I
am truly alive and free from the chains of sin that kept me
(seemingly) hopelessly captive before. I am now an heir and have the
hope of eternal life. What a beautiful contrast! How completely
opposite was my life a year ago compared to the life I have now. God
is so good and so faithful.
So now with this new life
that I have been given, I need to remember to submit to the
authorities that God has placed in my life, to be ready for the good
works that the Lord has for me to do, to speak evil of no one, to be
peaceable, gentle, and humble. This means to be these things with
everyone, no matter who they are or how they treat me. I need to
remember that I used to be without God just like them. These things
are hard but possible with the Lord. This is such a good reminder for
me as my serving time in IGNITE comes to an end this week. Just
because my time on the foreign mission field is ending does not mean
that I don't still need to live my life this way when I go back to
the States. My mission field doesn't stop here. My mission field is
wherever God places me.
My application this week
is to make this passage a bookmark for my Bible as a daily reminder.
