“Many of life’s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.” “I have not failed. I’ve just found ten thousand ways that won’t work.” Thomas Edison
I had the privilege to begin teaching a new Fight Club Men group in Maryville, TN this past week. This group of men came from a wide array of backgrounds, upbringing, geographic locations, career paths, etc. They all had a common bond that brought them together. Addiction. Lives paused by addiction. Lives defined by addiction. Lives gaining because of addiction. Lives being prepared through the experience of addiction for purpose. Hearts humbled, joy emerging, hungering for impact through the freedom being gained in new identities. Identities in Christ.
In 1986 the Boston Red Sox were on the verge of winning the World Series when their All Star first baseman allowed a simple gounder to go through his legs, giving the Mets “new life” that resulted in the Mets winning the World Series. When asked about the play, the Red Sox player said “one play, one error does not define me or my career.” The error he committed was on one of the most basic plays in baseball and an action, feet apart, eyes on the ball, glove on the ground, taught to players from the very beginning as they learn the art of playing baseball. His feet were apart, his eyes were on the ball, he glove in position and then raised in expectation of a bounce that never happened. An error. A simple error that only would define him if he chose to stop there and not show up again, to play the game, use the skills and pursue the goals that he had been gifted with ability to perform.
How are you defined? Who defines you? As God has been appointing me to bring the message of hope and freedom from pornography’s influence in the local church and in too many good men and women’s lives, I have been blessed with great counsel from the men He has put around me. One good man and fellow Christ warrior generously poured into me with this statement and beautiful thought. “Man, first and foremost, remind them who they are. Remind them whose they are. Confirm in them that they are God’s son and that He loves them exactly where they are.” Transformative thinking. Beautiful. Thank you, my brother Tim, for these words of wisdom and empowerment.
How does God define you?
FREE
2 Corinthians 5:18-19 “All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation.”
CHILD OF GOD
John 1:12 “But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.”
Romans 8:16-17 “The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.”
Galatians 3:26-28 “… for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.”
1 Thessalonians 5:5 “For you are all children of light, children of the day. We are not of the night or of the darkness.”
CHOSEN
1 Peter 2:9 “But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.”
John 15:16 “You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you.”
OLD SELF IS DEAD
Galatians 2:20 “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”
Colossians 3:3 “For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.”
NEW CREATION
John 3:3-6 “Jesus answered him, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.’ Nicodemus said to him, ‘How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?’ Jesus answered, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.’”
2 Corinthians 5:17 “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.”
NO LONGER CONDEMNED
Romans 8:1 “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.”
TEMPLE OF THE HOLY SPIRIT
1 Corinthians 3:16 “Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you?”
1 Corinthians 6:19-20 “Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.”
WARRIORS
1 John 5:4 “For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith.”
A VICTOR
Romans 8:37 “No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.”
So, another long post and if you have read this long go forward with the understanding that you are God’s beautiful daughter or son that is not defined by your failures. You are defined as a child of the King, created for marvelous purpose, destined to fail and try, try again. Walking forward into another day in the knowledge that your life and your life experiences exist to help another person coming in your path to find freedom, joy, purpose, relationship and eternal life with and through Jesus. You’ve got this.