"Hosea put it well: 'I'll call nobodies and make them
somebodies; I'll call the unloved and make them beloved. In the place where they
yelled out, 'You're nobody!' They're calling you 'God's living children.'"
Romans 9:25-26 (MSG)
Our Father in Heaven is the one who makes "nobodies"
into "somebodies". He is the One who changes the unlovable into the loveable.
Do you realize what that means?
It means there are no "nobodies" when we are in the
presence of our Heavenly Father!
We are, after all, His beloved children. He has a
purpose for each one of us, and though ignoring our purpose leads to despair and
hopelessness, even so, our Father will not abandon us. Instead, He gives us
hope: "Come back! I am here for you. I can give you a worthwhile life according
to your character traits. I love you!"
We are, in fact, so valuable in His eyes that our
Father considers us as His children and His heirs: "And we know we are going to
get what's coming to us-an unbelievable inheritance! We go through exactly what
Christ goes through. If we go through the hard times with him, then we're
certainly going to go through the good times with him!" Romans 8:17 (MSG) and
"God's gift has restored our relationship with him and given us back our lives.
And there's more life to come-an eternity of life!" Titus 3:7 (MSG) Do we full
embrace the Truth that we are "somebodies", or do we go through life seeing
ourselves as "nobodies"? I invite you to read the following true story to see
how God works to make "somebodies" out of "nobodies": "My mom was raised
Catholic and my dad was raised Protestant. Neither were very strict followers of
their religion so this was never a problem.
They both decided to raise my brother and I as
agnostics, so we could decide our religion for ourselves when we got older. We
only went to church at Christmas when the primary school kids would go to sing
Christmas songs, and when the Boy Scouts we were both a part of asked us to. We
hated it.
I was never in the right crowd for long growing up. I
was always trying to impress the older kids -- especially kids from the wrong
crowd. I don't think my parents, or many other parents, realized how dangerous
this attitude can be for a child.
I was secretly smoking cigarettes and drinking alcohol
by the age of 11. Of course my parents caught me a few times, and they would
ground me, and stop my pocket money for a while, but I kept on doing it anyway.
The older kids were allowed to so why shouldn't I be, I figured.
A few months into being age 13 I got involved with the
worst kind of crowd any child can get involved in -- a gang of drug users. The
youngest member was a year younger than me and the oldest members were in their
late 20s. We would sit in fields and little huts where they would pressure us
into taking drugs. Having younger members gave them something to laugh at, and
when we got too bad … laying in our own vomit practically unconscious … we would
get sticks thrown at us - alcohol poured down our throats - set on fire and
urinated on to put it out … these were a few of the awful things that I saw and
in some cases experienced. This was their idea of entertainment.
The worst part is … I would want to join in. I would
like it when they picked on someone else because it meant that they weren't
picking on me.
My time and money belonged completely to them. If my
mom or nana gave me money for sweets, it went into feeding their habit. They
would give me just enough to keep me dependent -- not just on the drugs but on
them. If I tried to take an hour to myself outside of school, my phone would
ring and ring until I picked up, and they would hassle me until I came out. I
don't know why I never turned my phone off. I had no time to spend with my
family or my childhood friends who I saw at school.
By the time I was nearly 15 I decided I wanted to
leave. This wasn't how people are meant to spend their childhood -- owned and
controlled.
I had already distanced myself from my friends and
family though. I had nobody to talk to and couldn't see a way out. I was at rock
bottom.
I saw online a social networking website that Satanism
could make me all powerful, and in a situation where I had no power, this was
very appealing, The devil deceived me, but I believe this made me a stronger and
more experienced Christian today, because I have greater insight now into how
real and how persistently deceiving demons are in doing Satan's evil bidding ...
especially controlling people to where they don't even realize they are being
influenced and controlled by him to various degrees ... which doesn't exclude
"Christians" either, by the way. (Satan's wolves in sheep's clothing the Bible
warns us about come in all kinds of different slick and sneaky disguises to mess
with us and our relationship with Jesus Christ and others).
I didn't leave my drug "friends" however until I was
about 16. Other people reached out to me out of the blue, inviting me to a
party. It was when I was surrounded by these friends I realized that there was
life outside the gang I was in, and so I cut off communication with the gang
group completely, and was finally able to turn off my phone and ignore them
until eventually, they gave up.
Of course at this point I was still under the
impression that Satan was helping me. I was deeply programmed with hatred of
Christianity, Judaism and Islam, and I became extremely ill. I don't know how
much of the illness was physical and how much was mental but I was weak,
lightheaded and constantly on the edge of passing out. It was like the dizziness
you get just before you faint on a loop. I didn't feel like I had control of my
own body.
When I realized I couldn't find relief in Satan
anymore, I was surprised to find that the only thing that made me feel better
was the Christian TV show I used to watch as a child called: Touched By An
Angel.
The more my interest in God grew the healthier I felt,
and when I finally accepted Jesus into my heart I was completely healed.
I still don't know what was wrong with me. I had just
about every check possible at the hospital and they couldn't figure it out
either, but I guess it doesn't matter now because that part of my life is over
and I have a new life now with Jesus and I am thankful for every second of it."
By Jake, thanks to
Precious Testimonies Evangelist
Ministries
You, too, can be a "somebody"!
Rob Chaffart
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