Holy Plot Twists
Amanda Schaefer
Over the past five and a half years of podcasting, I have had the privilege of hearing hundreds of testimonies, and I think the one thing that has surprised me most about the way God works in people's lives is his compassion for the places where we feel most ashamed.
One of the things that I have noticed that I never expected to see in other people's stories but was profoundly present in my own is that God loves us with pure agape love; it's so much more perfect than our love is. He sees us through his eternal heart for us.
Yes, God wants us to be holy, yes God wants us to transform, and he wants to work in our hearts and make us more like Jesus, but his compassion remembers that even though we were made in his image, we were formed out of the dust.
God recognizes when we choose to turn to him; he sees this as love. It is only by the blood of Jesus that we can, yet it is only by our choice that we can show him our love.
Look at David, for example. The Bible says he was called “a man after God's own heart,” and yet we see David fall and fail, we see him make poor decisions, be tempted, and choose to linger when he should have run, and yet his heart always turned back to God. He loved God, he knew God's character, and when he fell, he got up and ran back to God.
When we look at our shameful moments, we may think, " There's no way God could ever accept me again, but that's not how God’s heart works. That's not who God is. God doesn't just love us; he is love.
If we repent when we've done wrong, and turn back to God, because of what Jesus did on the cross, we are invited into his presence. God will use everything, even the sharpest, most broken, shameful places, for our good and his glory.
Vulnerability is difficult. As an author and a podcaster, I've learned to share everything because I know that it becomes a platform for the beautiful, perfect character and love of God to rest on.
I have found that it is in our brokenness that we can truly see how much God loves us. He sees our potential and allows us to choose what we will do and where we will go. He gives us free will because he loves us enough to risk our not choosing him back.
Jeremiah 6:16 says, “Stand at the crossroads, and look, and ask for the ancient paths, ask where the good way is; and walk in it, and you will find rest for your souls.”
When we invite God into our decisions, he will answer in ways that give us rest. If we pause and examine our options and choose God’s enduring truth, peace awaits us. Unfortunately, the next verse of scripture goes on to say, “But they said, ‘We will not walk in it.’”
God allows us to choose. He is who he says he is, even when choose poorly.
The God I spent most of my life ignoring was always with me. He was loving me and continually calling for me to come home.
When I look back, I can see all of the places where he protected me and made a way for me, even while I had no thoughts of him. He is doing the same thing for every one of us.
This is who God is. He is love. He waits patiently with a hope-filled heart, scanning the horizon for a glimpse of us.
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