Part 3 (1/2)

Peter was a man with a past. He was no one special; he was just a fisherman, and a rather rough, crude one at that. Peter was bold and not afraid of change, but he also had many faults. In Matthew 16:22-23 we see Peter trying to correct Jesus. In Matthew 26:31-35 we see that Peter thought more highly of himself than he should have. He had a pride problem and saw himself as better than other men. In Matthew 26:69-75 it is recorded that Peter denied even knowing Jesus.

Once Peter realized the depth of his sin, he wept bitterly, which showed that he had a repentant heart (v. 75). G.o.d is merciful and understands our weaknesses. In Mark 16:1-7 we learn that when Jesus sent a message to His disciples that He was risen from the dead, His messenger, the angel, especially mentioned Peter by name saying, ”Tell the disciples and Peter, He goes before you into Galilee” (v. 7). I can just imagine the joy Peter felt when he was told that Jesus had sent him a personal message. Peter had been included in G.o.d's plans for the future even though he had a past record of foolishness and failure. Peter had denied Christ, and yet he became one of the best-known apostles. Peter could have spent his entire life feeling bad about his denial of Jesus, but he pressed past that failure and became valuable to G.o.d's kingdom. He had so much Holy Ghost power that when his shadow fell on people, they were healed (See Acts 5:15)!

G.o.d promises to forget our past mistakes.

G.o.d is willing to forgive those who make mistakes, but they must be willing to receive His forgiveness. They must also forgive themselves. G.o.d promises to forget our past mistakes (See Jeremiah 31:34). Stop remembering what G.o.d has forgotten!

JACOB.

Jacob was a man with a past. He had been a schemer, a trickster, and a swindler. He was a liar. He was also selfish and sometimes downright cruel to others. He took advantage of people in order to get what he wanted. Jacob took advantage of his brother Esau's weak state and stole his birthright. He lied to his father, pretending to be Esau in order to receive the prayer of blessing that belonged to the firstborn.

The Bible teaches that we reap what we sow (See Galatians 6:7), and sure enough the time came in Jacob's life when he received treatment from his uncle Laban similar to what he had given others. Laban cheated Jacob, who wanted to marry Laban's daughter Rachel, promising him he could do so if he worked seven years as payment for her. After his seven years of labor were completed, Jacob expected to receive Rachel but was given her sister Leah instead. He was then told he would have to work another seven years for Rachel. I am sure Jacob felt deceived, cheated, and unfairly treated. He probably failed to remember that he had treated people the same way on several occasions. Yes, we reap what we sow. What goes around, comes around.

Eventually, Jacob experienced a change of heart. He became tired of running and hiding from Esau. Jacob finally left everything he had and returned toward his homeland. On the way, he began to wrestle with G.o.d. He was determined to receive a blessing from G.o.d no matter what it cost him. G.o.d changed Jacob's name, which meant trickster, schemer, and swindler, to Israel, which meant contender with G.o.d (See Genesis 32:27-28). Jacob went on to become a great leader and man of G.o.d. He had a past that could have easily labeled him a failure, but once he faced it and repented of it, he also had a future (Read about Jacob in Genesis 25-32).

RUTH.

Ruth was a Moabitess. She wors.h.i.+ped idols, and yet she decided to serve the one true G.o.d and as a result ended up in the direct bloodline of David and Jesus. (See the book of Ruth and Matthew 1:5).

RAHAB.

Rahab was a harlot, and yet she helped G.o.d's people and, like Ruth, ended up in the bloodline of David and Jesus (See Joshua 2 and 6 and Matthew 1:5).

PAUL.

Paul had a past. He persecuted Christians and yet became the apostle who received two-thirds of the New Testament by direct revelation and was taken into the third heaven where he saw glories he could not even describe (See 2 Corinthians 12:1-4). When handkerchiefs and ap.r.o.ns were taken from his body and placed on the sick, the sick were healed (See Acts 19:11-12). That is a powerful anointing! It certainly does not seem that Paul's past affected his future.

MATTHEW.

Matthew had a past; he was a despised tax collector who became one of the twelve disciples (See Mark 2:14).

The past you are dealing with could be the past of ten years ago or the past of yesterday, but the past is the past! Paul said in Philippians 3:10-15 that letting go of the past was one thing he worked diligently to do. Feeling condemned about the past is failing to accept G.o.d's forgiveness of it. Feeling that your past can adversely affect your future is refusing to let go of it. G.o.d is still G.o.d, and He can work good out of anything, if we give Him an opportunity to do so by believing! All things work out for good to those who pray, love G.o.d, and want His will in their lives (See Romans 8:28 KJV).

YOU WILL SUCCEED IF YOU REFUSE TO STOP TRYING.

Did you know Abraham Lincolna”who was probably one of our greatest presidents, if not the greatesta”lost several elections before he was elected president of the United States? As a matter of fact, he tried to get elected to public office so many times and failed so often that it's hard to understand how he could ever have the nerve to run for president. Yet, he dida”and won.

Did you know Thomas Edison once said: ”I failed my way to success”? He refused to quit trying, and he finally invented the light bulb, but he had two thousand failed experiments trying to invent it before he succeeded. A person like Edison who will not give up is an individual of strong character.

Did you know the material used to manufacture Kleenex tissues was originally invented as a gas mask filter during World War I, but it failed? Since it didn't work, the inventors tried making a cold cream out of it to use in taking off makeup, and it failed again. They finally hit upon a success when it was repackaged as a disposable handkerchief, and now Americans buy two hundred billion Kleenexes a year. It started out as two failures, but somebody said, ”I refuse to give up!”1 Failure is part of every real success because failing our way to success humbles us.

I personally believe failure is part of every real success because failing our way to success humbles us. It is a vital part of G.o.d's being able to use us effectively.

Charles Darrow set a goal when he was in his twenties; he determined that he was going to be a millionaire. This isn't all that unusual today, but back then, it was extremely unusual. Charles lived during the Roaring Twenties, a time when a million dollars was an enormous sum. He married a woman named Esther, promising her that one day they would be millionaires. Then tragedy struck in 1929a”the Great Depression. Both Charles and Esther lost their jobs. They mortgaged their house, gave up their car, and used all their life savings. Charles was absolutely crushed. He sat around the house depressed until one day he told his wife she could leave him if she wanted to. ”After all,” he said, ”it's clear that we're never going to reach our goal.” Esther wasn't about to leave. She told Charles they were going to reach their goal, but they would need to do something every day to keep the dream alive.

What she was trying to tell Charles was this: Don't let your dreams die just because you made a few mistakes in the past. Don't give up just because you tried something a few times, and it didn't seem to work. G.o.d wants you to press on past mistakes. The devil wants you to give up. Progress requires paying a price, and sometimes the price you pay for progress is just to ”keep on keeping on” and saying: ”I'm not going to quit until I have some kind of victory.” Don't be the kind of person whose way of dealing with everything hard is: ”I quit!”

Esther Darrow told her husband: ”Keep your dream alive.” Charles responded: ”It's dead. We failed. Nothing's going to work.” But she wouldn't listen to that kind of talk; she refused to believe it. She suggested that every night they take some time to discuss what they would do toward reaching their dream. They began doing this night after night, and soon Charles came up with an idea of creating play money. His idea was something quite appealing since money was so scarce in those days. Since they were both out of work, he and Esther had lots of time, and now they had lots of easy money to play with. So they pretended to buy things like houses, property, and buildings. Soon they turned the fantasy into a full-fledged game with board, dice, cards, little houses, hotels . . .

You guessed it. It was the beginning of a game you probably have in your closet right now; it's called Monopoly.

Charles's family and friends enjoyed the game, and in 1935 they persuaded him to approach a game company called Parker Brothers to see if they would buy it. The executives played the game and said: ”It's dull, slow, complex, and boring; we don't want to buy it.”

Well, Charles persevered. Perseverance is vital to success. We must persevere, be steadfast, keep on keeping on, and refuse to give up. When we do that, we will eventually succeed.

Charles's wife kept encouraging him. Thank G.o.d for the people in our lives who encourage us! He approached Wanamaker's toy store and told an executive that if they would stock the game, he would get a five-thousand-dollar loan and make several of the games because he believed they would sell. The game took off, and suddenly Parker Brothers became interested. The company executives now replayed the game, and this time found it imaginative, fast-paced, and surprisingly easy to master. The game was copyrighted in 1935, and Parker Brothers bought it from Charles Darrow for one million dollars. Charles and Esther's dream came true.2 We love to read success stories like this one, but let us remember that G.o.d wants to do the same type of thing through each of us. He is ”no respecter of persons” (Acts 10:34). That means He does not have a few favorite people, and all the rest are left out. G.o.d's principles will work for anyone who is willing to work them. His Word says all things are possible to the one who believes (See Mark 9:23). If we stay positive, keep on believing, and refuse to give up, G.o.d will do something great through all of us.

You are not a failure just because you have failed.

Don't get so caught up in the number of failed attempts in your life that you refuse even to believe you have a future. Remember, you are not a failure just because you have failed. G.o.d sees your worth no matter what; there's no need for any approval but His, and if He can overlook your past, so can you.

In the next chapter I am going to ask you to take a closer look at what it means not only to understand your worth, but to love and approve of yourself.

Chapter 5.

Loving Yourself

The Bible teaches us we are to love our neighbor as we love ourselves (See Matthew 22:39). What if we don't love ourselves? It renders us incapable of loving others, which is a big problem. The distinguis.h.i.+ng mark of Christians is their love walk: I give you a new commandment: that you should love one another. Just as I have loved you, so you too should love one another.

By this shall all [men] know that you are My disciples, if you love one another [if you keep on showing love among yourselves]. (John 13:34-35) People who cannot love and approve of themselves live in tremendous emotional pain. If they don't approve of themselves, they may end up with an addiction to approval from others. G.o.d has not created us for rejection, but acceptance. He accepts us by virtue of our faith in Christ, and we must receive His acceptance by accepting ourselves. People who reject and even hate themselves are doomed to a life of misery and failure.

How do you feel about yourself? Many people don't know how they feel about themselves because they have never taken time to think about it. You should. You do have a relations.h.i.+p with yourself. Actually, you have to be with yourself all the time. You are the one person you never get away from. If you don't like yourself, if you don't get along with yourself, you are doomed to misery.

If you don't believe that is so, all you need do is remember a time when you had to spend a day or longer with someone you absolutely did not like or perhaps even really despised. It was likely a miserable time, one that you would avoid repeating. You need to realize that not liking yourself is essentially fostering those same feelings! As a Christian, you were not made to hate yourself, but to love yourself and to enjoy the good life G.o.d has given you. Since G.o.d loved us so much that He sacrificed His only Son for us, it is rather disrespectful and insulting to Him for us to despise ourselves.

ENJOYING LIFE.

Enjoying life is impossible if we don't enjoy ourselves. You might ask, ”Joyce, how can I enjoy myself? I do too many dumb things and make too many mistakes to enjoy myself.” Perhaps you don't like the way you look, or your personality, or even one particular feature of your body.

If that is the case, I understand how you feel. For many years I disliked my voice so much I was almost paranoid about it. I actually dreaded opening my mouth and letting someone hear me speak for the first time because I felt my voice was not one a woman should have. If you have ever heard me speak, you know my voice is very deep for a female. Quite often when I make phone calls, people who don't know me think I am a male. They call me Mr. Meyer. There were times when that made me angry, embarra.s.sed me, and added to my feelings of insecurity.

The interesting thing is that my voice is what G.o.d is using most. He has chosen to use me in a media ministry where my voice is heard in most of the world daily. G.o.d can take what we think is a flaw and do great things with it. As a matter of fact, He delights in doing just that. As we have seen, His strength is made perfect in our weaknesses; He shows Himself strong through what we would discard as having zero value.

Make a decision today to develop a new and more positive att.i.tude toward yourself.

What don't you like about yourself? Be specific; take an inventory and make a decision today to develop a new and more positive att.i.tude toward yourself.

Jesus died so we could have life and enjoy it (See John 10:10). Living with daily self-rejection, or even self-hatred, is a horrible way to live. We project to others what we feel about ourselves. If we want other people to have a good opinion of us, we must begin by having a good opinion of ourselves. Most of the time people don't love and approve of themselves; therefore, they seek from others what they should be getting from G.o.d, which is a sense of being valuable and lovable. When they don't get from other people what they seek, they feel rejected, and the negative feelings they have about themselves increase. This type of negative self-att.i.tude is an open door for Satan. According to the Bible, he looks for those whom he may devour (See 1 Peter 5:8). People who don't know how to love themselves in a balanced way are a gourmet meal for the enemy.

A BALANCED ATt.i.tUDE.

A fear of being prideful may keep a person trapped in an att.i.tude of self-abas.e.m.e.nt. The Bible does teach us not to have an exaggerated opinion of our own importance (See Romans 12:3). We are to estimate ourselves according to the grace of G.o.d, knowing that our strengths come from Him and make us no better than others. We all have strengths and weaknesses! The Word of G.o.d says He gives gifts unto men, and He chooses who will receive what gifts (See 1 Corinthians 12:4-11). We cannot simply select what we want to be good at.