Fall in Awe Again: God Is Not Finished With Your Story
There are seasons in life when it feels as though everything that could go wrong has gone wrong.
You survive one storm, only to face another battle.
You make it through the shipwreck, only to be bitten by the snake.
That was Paul’s experience in Acts 27 and 28. He found himself in a violent storm, surrounded by people who had lost all hope. The ship was eventually destroyed, yet God had already spoken: Paul would make it to Caesar.
The storm could not cancel what God had said.
Even after surviving the shipwreck, Paul arrived on Malta and was bitten by a viper while gathering sticks for the fire. What should have harmed him did not have the final say over his life.
The very hand that was bitten would later become a hand through which God brought healing.
That is a powerful picture for us.
Your Wound Does Not Have to Define You
Pain has a way of becoming part of our identity if we carry it long enough.
We begin to introduce ourselves through what happened to us.
The betrayal.
The failure.
The disappointment.
The broken relationship.
The season that did not turn out the way we expected.
But God never intended for your wound to become your name.
The world is quick to label people according to their past, their mistakes, or their struggles. Jesus does something different.
He gives people new names.
Jacob became Israel.
Simon became Peter.
Saul became Paul.
Your beginning does not have to determine your ending.
God is still able to redeem, restore and rewrite a story surrendered to Him.
Let God Turn the Page
There are things we keep carrying that Jesus has already invited us to release.
Pain.
Shame.
Guilt.
Condemnation.
Old disappointments.
Dreams we believe are dead.
Sometimes we continue retelling the same story to ourselves until we begin to believe that our past has authority over our future.
But the enemy does not get the final word.
Jesus does.
The death, burial and resurrection of Jesus changed the outcome forever.
The cross declared that sin, shame and death would not have the final say.
When Jesus said, “It is finished,” He meant it.
We do not need to complete what Jesus has already completed.
We need to believe Him.
There comes a moment when we have to allow God to turn the page.
Not because what happened was insignificant, but because what Jesus has done is greater.
Return to Your First Love
One of the greatest dangers for a believer is becoming familiar with the things of God while losing our wonder for God Himself.
We can attend church.
Serve.
Sing.
Listen to sermons.
Know the right language.
And still lose our awe.
It is possible to love the structure and lose the wonder.
To love the gathering but forget why we gather.
To become familiar with Jesus without remaining captivated by Him.
God is calling His people back to first love.
Back to surrender.
Back to wonder.
Back to a place where Jesus is not simply part of our lives, but the centre of our life.
Jesus is not looking for public performance.
He is looking for private surrender.
He is not asking us to impress Him.
He is asking us to give Him everything.
Pour Everything Out
Scripture gives us the picture of a woman who came to Jesus and poured out everything she had upon Him.
There was no carefully calculated amount.
No partial surrender.
She held nothing back.
Her worship cost her something.
And that is the invitation before us too.
There are moments when we need to stop negotiating with God and simply say:
“Lord, here is everything.”
My pain.
My future.
My family.
My disappointment.
My calling.
My plans.
My questions.
My entire life.
Surrender does not mean that we understand everything.
It means that we trust the One to whom we are surrendering.
Put Your Hand Back to the Plough
Perhaps you once knew that God had called you.
There was a dream.
An assignment.
A vision.
A fire in your heart.
But then life happened.
Disappointment came.
Words were spoken over you.
You became tired.
Something went wrong.
And slowly, your hand came off the plough.
The message of the Gospel is not that nothing difficult will ever happen.
It is that difficulty does not have the authority to cancel the purposes of God.
If God has called you, the storm cannot remove that call.
The shipwreck cannot remove it.
The bite cannot remove it.
The opinions of people cannot remove it.
God is not finished with what He started.
Put your hand back to the plough.
There is still grace.
There is still mercy.
There is still strength.
There is still a future.
He Can Make the Ashes Beautiful
God is a Redeemer.
He does not waste surrendered pain.
He can take ashes and bring beauty from them.
He can take tears and turn them into testimony.
He can take the places that were wounded and use them to bring healing to others.
That does not mean we glorify the pain.
We glorify the God who brought us through it.
Paul’s hand was bitten, but the bite did not become the end of his story.
The woman caught in adultery had a past, but her past was not the final description of her life.
The thief on the cross had almost no time left, yet one moment with Jesus changed his eternity.
Grace is greater than your timeline.
Grace is greater than your history.
Grace is greater than what people have called you.
Fall in Awe Again
Maybe the prayer you need today is not complicated.
Maybe it is simply:
“Lord, I want my awe back.”
“I want my first love back.”
“I want to love You again with everything in me.”
There are times when faith needs to become simple again.
Jesus first.
Jesus above everything.
Jesus in the storm.
Jesus in the healing.
Jesus in the calling.
Jesus in the future.
You do not need to know every detail of what comes next.
You simply need to trust the One who already does.
God is not finished with your story.
Let go of what He never asked you to carry.
Put your hand back to the plough.
Give Him everything.
And fall in awe again.
Because what God starts, He is faithful to finish.