"Do not call anything impure that God has made clean."
Acts 10:15 & 9
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I've messed up a lot.
I've done things I never should have done, said things I never should have said, and thought things I never should have thought. I've sinned against our God way too many times to count. Sometimes it's really easy to find shame in this; to label myself with my sin. And I know I am not alone in feeling this way.
Meet my new friend Yolanda.
I met her at an outreach we recently held in a neighborhood called Green's Farm. We visited many of the homes and invited everyone to an event near the front of the neighborhood in which we would have worship, a skit, a message, and free soup and bread. Yolanda heard about the event and knew she needed to go. She later shared with me that she had a very strong feeling that she was supposed to be there. She didn't know why, but she knew she needed to go before her big move to the city the very next day. So she convinced her cousins to join her and headed towards our group.
By the end of the outreach, Yolanda looked perplexed. She was no longer standing shoulder to shoulder with her cousins, nor was she speaking with them. She stared straight ahead at the pastor from Durban who was delivering the message. He asked if anyone wanted to pray to invite Jesus into their heart. Yolanda's hand flew into the air.
I walked over to her side to talk with her and to pray. "This isn't the first time I've been to an event like this", she said. "I used to come when I was a child- like all of these children. But now it's too hard. I want to follow Jesus, but I've made so many bad decisions. I've done bad things. It's like there is this dark thing following me wherever I go."
My heart broke and rejoiced at the same time; broke because of her hurt and struggle, but rejoiced because of the good news of grace that I was about to share with her.
Romans 6:14 says, "For sin shall no longer be your master, because you are not under the law, but under grace." And John 1:16 says "From his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace."
When we give our lives to Christ we are given a new identity, a new master. We are identified not by our past, not by our present, and not by our future. We are identified as co-heirs with Christ! Grace is a beautiful thing. Unmerited, undeserved favor.
I went on to explain some of my story with Yolanda. I shared with her that I too, had made many bad decisions, done many bad things. I told her that I sometimes share the same struggle of finding my identity in my sin. But my favorite way to combat this struggle is with scripture, and in scripture it says,"Do not call anything impure that God has made clean." And I know that my God has made me clean. My Jesus died on the cross so that my sin could be wiped clean- ALL of it. And that is the identity I now bare…and so could she.
So on a warm winter night in Port St. John's, Yolanda and I prayed for her identity to be found in her Savior- the one who has so patiently been waiting for her. And at the same time the Lord sweetly ministered to my heart, reminding me of these very same truths in my life.
We have truly been given grace on grace on grace. And for that I am forever grateful.
Love,
Kara
