“Your mistakes may define your past, but they don’t have to define your present.”

A thought by Mark Batterson, (2011-01-18) from his book, Soulprint: Discovering Your Divine Destiny (p. 140). Multnomah Books. Kindle Edition.

That is such a life-giving thought. So many people just want to die because of some mistake that they made. They can’t forgive themselves and so they live in such despair but they don’t have to.

Yes that mistake may be there and your marriage is over or you can’t work in that job but life isn’t over. The story of Zachariah in the gospel of Luke in the Bible is a good place to look.

An Angel came to him one day and told him that God had heard his prayer and that his wife, Elizabeth was going to have a son. But Zachariah said to the angel, “Do you expect me to believe this? I’m now an old man and my wife is an old woman.” He must have been praying this prayer for a long time. But because he didn’t believe him that it was going to now happen the angel took his ability to speak away from him. He blew it and suffered some consequences. But the story doesn’t end there.

At an appointed time through God’s mercy their son was born and out of obedience they named him, John and Zachariah was given his voice back.

He had blown it but he got back on track. And from that point his life was remembered not by the mistake but by the obedience. He had a son and his name was John.

Your life can be defined by your sin, your mistake or by God’s grace and His mercy. It is your choice. Just confess your sin, your mistake to Him and ask Him to forgive you and He will. You can start again.

So what is defining you today?

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