MESS AND MESSAGE

Have you thanked Him?

Have you praised Him?

Have you made it your priority to agree and cooperate with Him today?

Have you taken that deep breath and listened for what He has for you today?

1 Timothy 2:1 (The Message)

1-3The first thing I want you to do is pray. Pray every way you know how, for everyone you know.

 

“All I have is time man. I don’t know when I am getting out of here.”

“I was sentenced last week, but no word on ‘what is next’”.

“My grandchild is being born around Christmas, but I won’t be there. Instead I will be locked up."

“All I can think about is that cold beer that is on the other of this cage.”

 

Sounds messy doesn’t it?

Sounds hopeless doesn’t it?

 

I have never done real “time”.

I have been behind bars mind you, but my “time” was minimal.  I was blessed with good “bail-bondsmen” back in the day.

 

But even the little “bits” of jail time I experienced were in a word, messy.

 

I was a messy drunk.

I went to messy locked down rehab facilities.

Spent time with other messy drunks all crowded in a room in various states of consciousness.

Not pretty in the least.

But oddly enough, out of that mess GOD gave me my "message”.

 

Last night as I shared with the Montgomery County Jail inmates and my little small group of 6, GOD gave me a vision of MESSAGES and not messes.

 

One of the fellas is looking at years of hard time for some pretty “culturally unacceptable choices”.  But there he was tearfully committing at the end of our session to “humble obedience and trust” for what GOD had for him.  He grabbed with both hands that even HIS MESS still contained a hopeful MESSAGE!

 

Jeremiah 29:11(NLT)

For I know the plans I have for you,” says the Lord. “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.

 

Next to me in the circle, bald-headed and wide eyed was a young "soon to be "grandpa.  One of his blackouts turned into a beat down for his victim.  He was waiting transport to the penitentiary and a 3 year stint.  That was truly a mess.

 

But who is to say that GOD would not in 2017 turn that pain into purpose, turn this incarceration into inspiration, to turn this hurt into a healing story for others?

He wanted it.  He asked GOD for it last night.

 

Why wouldn’t GOD deliver on HIS Word?

Joel 2:13-14

Come back to God, your God. And here’s why: God is kind and merciful. He takes a deep breath, puts up with a lot, This most patient God, extravagant in love, always ready to cancel catastrophe. Who knows? Maybe he’ll do it now…

 

The point is this.

Don’t be quick to judge the mess.  Don’t be quick to label anything an “unchangeable catastrophe.”  Instead look past the mess and see the potential message, the possible story GOD is writing.

 

GOD has a divine story and purpose for each of us; yes even for our FAILURES and PAIN.  In fact it is in the messes of our lives that we are often given our loudest message!

 

“Pain insists upon being attended to. God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our consciences, but shouts in our pains. It is his megaphone to rouse a deaf world.” ― C.S. Lewis

 

Or to rouse an individual to “make changes”; to seek “the story”!

 

Take a look in the mirror.

Are things messy?

Attend to that pain that mess in your life with some prayer.  GOD is “rousing” you to make some changes, to rediscover your voice, to stir you into action maybe start the story!

 

Embrace the mess!

Open your heart and mind to your message!

 

“Have God make a message out of your mess.”  ― Joyce Meyer

 

I love you all.

HAVE AN AWESOME WEEKEND!

 

Freedom Church

 

 

Pastor GDelaney