This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun! 2 Corinthians 5:17

 

One step forward, two steps back. No one likes to feel that their life is going nowhere, or worse, that they’re a failure.

 

Have you ever watched an archer? To send his arrow flying far and effectively, the archer needs to pull back, back, back until the maximum tension is reached on the bowstring. Only then can the arrow hit its target and accomplish the purpose for which the archer selected it.

 

The trajectory of our lives is often not unlike that of the arrow in the hands of the archer. In times of failure, of bad decisions or in painful loss, we can feel like we’ve gone so far backward, we’ll never recover from the past. Not so, says one follower of Jesus who struggled with addiction, until he allowed Jesus to rule his life. “You are not defined by your past—you are prepared by it,” Pastor Ian Faulkner says.[1]

 

“…anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person,” scripture says, “The old life is gone; a new life has begun!” (2 Corinthians 5:17). Your life is made new, and it’s made purposeful. God uses all of a life surrendered to Him. Faulkner puts it like this: “Your ministry is found where you’ve been broken, and your testimony is found where you’ve been restored,”[2]

 

Feel like you’ve gone backward, permanently ruined by your past? In God’s hands, it’s possible for your life to travel a journey of personal restoration, peace and fulfillment and also be powerfully used to bring hope in Jesus to others. When we come to Him, scripture says that God is able to do “…exceedingly abundantly, above all we ask or think,” through His power that works in our lives.

 

[1] Faulkner, Ian. Personal Testimony, Mission Hills Church, July 30,2023. Mission Viejo, CA. Sermon.

[2] Ibid.