REDEEMED
28th Sep 2016
The Paralympics have just ended in Rio, and we have watched the most amazing athletes performing to the highest of standards. What is more amazing is the stories that lie behind these incredible people. Some born with crippling handicaps, some wounded in war, others involved in horrendous accidents, coming out of despair and tragedy and being transformed into hope, victory and celebration. This is truly redemption, a coming out of what looked like the end into a new beginning and a transformed life.
God is always in the business of redemption, he loves to take the broken, despairing and hopeless situations and transform them into something entirely new. Ephesians 2:12-13 says, “Remember that at that time you were separate from Christ....foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For he himself is our peace.”
I love the verses in Isaiah 35 where God’s people are returning from captivity, “Therefore the redeemed of the Lord shall return, with singing unto Zion, and everlasting joy shall be upon their heads.... and sorrow and sighing will flee away.”
In the Paralympics we are looking at a natural redemption, but God is offering us a supernatural one. As I read the story of these amazing folk I recognised how easily they could become trapped in their disability. But then I began to think of folk who have become a captive of past disappointments. There are others who have let bitterness and resentment trap them. Grief and sadness can rob folk of the future and hope that God is offering.
Job at his moment of great despair said, “I know that my redeemer lives!” He kept hope alive and received a great transformation to his life.
Jeremiah 31:11 says, “For the Lord will deliver Jacob and redeem them from the hand of those stronger than they.” Is there any part of your life that needs to be redeemed. Don’t stay trapped, or settle for anything that is less than God’s best.
by Charles Sibthorpe
