When I was asked to share a good news story I had planned to tell you about a lovely lady that I have been working with for over a year. She has struggled for years with alcohol but had been sober since September last year.
She has faith but was also very anxious about returning to church as she hadn’t been for about a year and a half.
A few weeks back she felt ready to go to church and I had the privilege of going with her. One of the first worship songs we sang contained the following lyrics – ‘Bring all your failures, bring your addictions, come lay them down at the foot of the cross, Jesus is waiting here with open arms.’
It was a really special and significant moment. It felt like a ‘Good News Story.’
Fast forward 3 days and this lovely lady had a relapse. You might be thinking – where is the Good News in this story?
Well, we are celebrating the fact that she has had about 9 months of sobriety before …
We are celebrating the fact that she was only back on the drink for a few days….
We are celebrating the fact that she got knocked down, but she didn’t stay down…
We are celebrating the fact that even though life is hard she knows Jesus is with her.
Today she said to me – ‘Jesus meets us in our mess and gives us a message.’
This is so true. When we hit rock bottom and we are brought to our knees we meet God in these places.
He promises never to leave us and He promises to pick us up when we get knocked down. This is exactly what he had done in this participant’s life and this is exactly what he offers you.
We get knocked down…but we are not destroyed. Surely this is Good News worth celebrating?!
‘We are hunted down, but never abandoned by God. We get knocked down, but we are not destroyed.’
2 Corinthians 4:9