Hello Reader Friends,
I am so excited about the release of Refining Josie by Carolyn Miller! In the book, Josie makes mistakes and is misunderstood. For this release, Carolyn asked each of us to talk about a time that God redeemed a mistake of misunderstanding in your life.
Mistakes – boy have I made a LOT of them in my life. And let me tell you, some have been WHOPPERS! I started to think about which ones to share but the more and more I thought about it, the more I wanted to share something deeper with you.
Growing up I wasn’t much of a Berean. I would go to church, Sunday School, midweek Bible study, the works but…I just took what was taught, accepted it, and never did an ounce of study of my own. This led me to have some beliefs that didn’t line up with the Bible. I couldn’t tell you why I believed what I believed or even how I cam to believe it.
I was lazy.
Fast forward to about 15 years ago when my husband attended a conference with his best friend. Jim had been reading a book written about The Passion of the Christ that exposed the biblical errors in it and through that the Lord regenerated his heart and he became a believer. After that, he began reading veraciously the Word and theological books and he started to talk to me about it.
I didn’t want to hear it. I would get upset because he would share with me and I didn’t see how what he believed was biblical. It was nothing that I had heard before. In my mind, he had gone off the deep end – the the 100 foot deep end – and I was concerned he would never resurface.
He was so patient. He kept praying and sharing with me and finally, the Lord opened my eyes and I saw my laziness. How I just accepted what wasn’t even in the Bible.
God used that mistake to grow me, to show me that I need to be in the Word. That I need to be thinking deeply about my theology and I need to make sure that what I am believing lines up with the Bible.
This brings me to the deeper things that I wanted to talk about. One of the reasons I struggled with this post comes to my theology. When I look at redemption biblically, the only redeeming the Lord does is of His people. Some people would say to me that I am splitting hairs but I have learned that we take something beautiful and make it not so important when we use it outside how it should be.
Also, I know I have been guilty of saying I made a mistake, but really I sinned. What I talked about was not a mistake but a sin. When I do not call my sin a sin but a mistake, I don’t own up to the repentance I should be doing.
Lastly, and the most encouraging part in all of this…..The Lord uses ALL our sin, mistakes, misunderstanding for our good and His glory in the believers life. Romans 8:28 – 30 tells us :
Sometimes it takes time to see. Sometimes we have to pray and look and pray some more. Sometimes we might not see it until heaven. But God will use it.
And that, my friends, is the most encouraging and exciting thing. If I could do back flips over it, I would.
More about Refining Josie…
What’ll it take for the prodigal daughter to share her deepest secrets… and her heart?
Click HERE to get your copy!
Giveaway
Before you go, be sure to enter my giveaway plus visit the authors posts to find out how God redeemed their mistake and enter their giveaway!