God’s Not Finished With You Yet

by | Apr 20, 2022

Have you ever said, “I will never…”?

I know I have; maybe you have too. And Peter, one of Jesus’ disciples in the Bible, felt pretty confident that he would never betray Jesus. Yet, Jesus foretold Peter’s denial of Him right after Peter said, “Lord, I am ready to go with you both to prison and to death.” (Luke 22:33)

Just a short time later, as Jesus was being put on trial, Peter indeed did what he thought he would never do…he betrayed Jesus by denying he even knew Him– three different times. And afterwards, Peter was broken and devastated.  

Just like Peter, we all have done things we said we would never do. We, like Peter, are works in progress. That’s why God gives us this promise in Philippians 1:6: “…that He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Christ Jesus.”  

When Jesus called Peter from his life as a fisherman to his new life as a “fisher of men”, it was not with the expectation that Peter would flawlessly follow Him. No, in fact it was for an entirely different reason.

He chose Peter not for his perfection, but for his potential. 

Jesus did not come to call the flawless or the self-righteous to follow HIm. He calls the hurting and the broken, the despised and rejected, the outsider and the sinner.

Why?

Because Jesus came to RECLAIM. 

Jesus came to restore what’s been lost.

Jesus came to heal what’s been broken.

Jesus came to forgive our failures. 

Jesus came to bring hope to a hopeless world.

And Jesus became our Living Hope when He rose from the dead! 

That means we can trust that He is always at work in our lives, even when we don’t see it or feel it. In the Gospel of John, we see Jesus doing all of this for Peter. In His resurrected body, Jesus reclaims Peter’s story, and restores him to the man of God and sold-out follower He knows Peter is. 

Jesus gives Peter hope that God is not finished with him yet! And He wants you to have that hope too!

When we allow God to heal our painful and broken pasts, He invites us to follow Him into a hope-filled future, full of promise and purpose. Peter went from fisherman, to disciple, to betrayer, to the founding member and first preacher of God’s church (Matthew 16:18).

Every one of us qualifies to hang a sign around our neck that reads “WORK IN PROGRESS”. And it’s true! We are God’s workmanship.(Ephesians 2:10); created to do great things, which He has already prepared for us to do from the beginning of time! And God is faithful to complete what He started!

Don’t try to edit the story God is still writing. 

God’s mercy can mold every mistake into something He uses for your good and His glory (Romans 8:28). God’s mighty power is perfected in every weakness. And His grace can replace every feeling of inadequacy with the confidence of His sufficiency (2 Corinthians 12:9).

Two of the greatest things we have received from God are salvation and hope. When Jesus died on the cross for our sins on that Good Friday long ago, we received the gift of salvation. And when He arose from the dead three days later, we received hope – hope for today, that we have a living Savior and Lord ever-present with us; and hope for the future –  that we will one day live forever with Him, whole and restored, as He promised.

Have you personally received these incredible gifts? If you never have, you can today. If you are ready for God to reclaim your story, then connect with us at connect@reclaimedstory.com. We would love to talk with you and pray with you.

Trusting In Our Reclaiming God Together,

Enjoy this song reminding you that God is still writing your story. Mandisa – Unfinished (Acoustic)

1 Comment

  1. Trina Lucia

    Well said well said thank you.
    I love how you used Peters story; I never read or hear about Peters story in this light . I never thought about him as unfinished as I am and it is okay now I finally see it clearly now. God is our Master Planner and all of us are healed and finished only on Gods perfect timIng alone. Never our, never our. What a relief that is to finally get this all cleared up in my head . That it is okay not to be okay now. My God is not in a hurry and my fingerprints matter to God and I matter to God and my life matters to God and God as special plans only I can do for Him on this beautiful world He made.

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