Excuse me for having excuses.

I've just come to realise something each time I log on to  Butterfly & Pearls.  Each article I write is always birthed out of a place of brokenness in my life. Just looking through the archives since 2009, the only way I could bless you as the readers, and the heart of God is if I wrote from an area of desperation and neediness. My desperation was based solely on the need for Christ.

I just quickly want to share something that I learned today.  Do you ever let the things from the past dictate your present and your future. You know those excuses that you have based your life upon and your current circumstances. Excuses such as: " My Pastor abused his position in our church and so that is why I can never trust Christians or God even." or some excuses are lot more deeper than that and sound a little like this " My husband of 12 years walked out on me without saying a word, leaving me with two small children and a mortgage to pay off. So therefore I could never trust a man."
I have to agree with you there, all the above excuses are valid and I can see why you would behave like that. I can see why you have allowed yourself years of bitterness, pain and hurt.  Baby girl, you've seen some stuff in your life.  However, there is just one, teensy, small problem with living a life of hurt and bitterness. It doesn't weigh up with the life God has intended for his daughters.
John 10:10 states thus, " The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy....". We are all aware of who the "thief" is in this context, right? Just to clarify, it is the devil.  Anyway the devil has come to steal from us.  He has come to feed on our painful experiences, and steal away our joy, our happiness  . He has come to  kill the last piece of hope we have for a better life. He uses the bad experiences of our past to kill our desires and dreams so that we settle for mediocre. I have often heard from friends things such as " My dad was abusive to my mother, so I could never see myself getting married and tying myself to one man." Right there is dream put to death.  Furthermore, the thief has come to destroy who we are. He has come to destroy our identity as women. As a result, due to the fact that a boyfriend from old, rejected you for your best friend, you begin to compare yourself to every girl you come across. You hate who you are because you truly believe that if you were so amazing your man would have stuck around, right? Wrong! So your identity is destroyed and you become a cheap copy of Kim Kardashian. Pitiful.
Hold, on I'm going somewhere with this. John 10:10 does not end there. It goes on to say: " I have come that they may have life and have it to the full."  This is Jesus speaking right now. The devil may have come to use bad encounters to destroy you but Jesus is looking past everything that you have been through. He is letting us know that, despite all of this we can still experience life as it should be and experience it in all its glory and abundance.
I'm not just speaking to you, I too  have to take this Word on board for myself. We need to stop allowing the past to dictate our present and future. God wiped that slate clean a long time ago.  We need to start living, and living life to the fullest.
No more excuses!

In Christ

Chizor