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Editor's note: Pastor Kim (also known as Real Talk Kim) says it how it is. She's full of spunk and Jesus and she loves to share the joy and hope of Jesus. Her new book You Gotta Get Up will encourage you to get unstuck move on after traumas and troubles. Enjoy this excerpt:
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Everyone makes mistakes. Until we fully grasp this concept, we will continue going through life looking for change but finding none.
- It’s time to let go of your regrets.
Use your mistakes as a teaching tool. You can bounce back and not repeat cycles — I’ve seen people do it over and over. When I became transparent and began taking the world with me on my daily journey, it changed me. I no longer had skeletons in my closet nor was I afraid to reach out to others. People knew my story and still loved me.
I no longer live in fear of someone knowing my secrets. I have no secrets to hide. I am no longer embarrassed that I am a divorced mother of two. It’s time for you to stop worrying about what others think about you. Instead, use your failures and mistakes to help others. When you realize that what you are going through may make a difference for others, it changes you.
God trusted you with your mess so you can impact others with His message.
I stopped allowing others to control my days when I began facing my regrets and mistakes. It’s time to stop being embarrassed that you have been in drug rehab or in jail. Stop allowing others’ opinions to determine your direction when God wants to use your pain for His gain. You will be amazed at how many people you could impact if you get honest and tell the truth about your mistakes. Don’t let your failures go to waste!
Everyone who has heard my story knows that I have determined to tell it like it is. I got married for the first time at eighteen, and it is just a blur in my memory book. My mom has joked that the wedding lasted longer than the marriage. I truly don’t even remember the time we were together. I have used that mistake to help so many people on their journeys.
I married again without listening to wise counsel because I thought I knew what was best for my life. Boy, was I wrong! Out of that marriage came my two gorgeous sons and many years of painful memories. I could have spent my entire life bleeding on people who did not cut me, but I finally realized at age thirty-six that I must take responsibility for the pain I had inflicted and for the decisions I had made.
The apostle Peter was a prime example of failure. How could this man who had walked with Jesus — Jesus, who had even healed his mother-in-law — deny Jesus three times when everyone had deserted Him? Peter knew that Jesus was going to be crucified and had promised Jesus that he would never forsake Him. But at the most crucial time in history, Peter’s fear drove him to fail the One he called friend. In the garden of Gethsemane, Jesus warned Peter to stay awake and pray because the spirit might be willing but the body was weak. Peter fell asleep and, by the time the soldiers had come to arrest Jesus, it was too late to pray for the strength to endure.
Peter learned his lesson about being watchful. Peter assumed that he was strong enough to withstand any temptation as he stood with Jesus. He failed to realize that we can let our emotions overpower us even when we have set our goals to be strong in the Lord. But his enemy had targeted Peter because he had not prepared himself through prayer, and he underestimated his weakness.
Stay alert! Watch out for your great enemy, the devil. He prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour. — 1 Peter 5:8
Peter came to himself as soon as he heard the rooster crow and realized that he had denied his Lord three times just as Jesus had prophesied. Peter mentioned that our enemy prowls like a roaring lion, waiting for someone to devour, which means that he is always waiting. The devil is patient and can wait until we let our guard down. Why did Jesus allow Peter to fail so miserably? Jesus revealed to Peter that Satan had asked for permission to sift the disciples like wheat:
Simon, Simon, Satan has asked to sift each of you like wheat. But I have pleaded in prayer for you, Simon, that your faith should not fail. So when you have repented and turned to me again, strengthen your brothers. — Luke 22:31–32
Jesus could have protected Peter, but Jesus had a higher goal. He needed to arm Peter in the fight to strengthen the other disciples. Peter was equipped and able to rise up as a leader in the early church, teaching and training others to follow the Lord Jesus Christ. He was the special speaker on the day of Pentecost when the Holy Spirit was poured out on the 120 people in the upper room in Jerusalem and spoke to thousands during the Passover celebration. As He does with our failures, God used Peter’s failures to turn him from Simon, a common man with a common name, into Peter, whose name means “the rock.”
Excerpted with permission from You Gotta Get Up by Real Talk Kim, copyright Kimberly Jones.
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Your Turn
Have you made big mistakes? Have you been such a failure that you feel like you’ll never recover and have a fruitful life in Jesus? God wants you to let go of your regrets. You are already forgiven if you’ve asked for it from Him. God wants to strengthen you and send you out full of faith! Will you receive it? ~ Laurie McClure, Faith.Full
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