Our Scars-His Glory
John 20:25-27, “The other disciples therefore were saying to him, ‘We have seen the Lord!’ ‘Unless I shall see in His hands the imprints of the nails, and put my finger in the place of the nails and put my hand into His side; I will not believe…Jesus came the door being shut, and stood in their midst; and said, ‘Peace be with you.’ Then He said to Thomas, ‘Reach here your finger, and see My hands; and reach here your hand, and put it it in My side; and be not unbelieving, but believing.’ “
I had my devotion for today all set, but as I was reading My morning devotion God spoke to my heart; and changed my direction. I was reading this morning about a football player at the University of Georgia, and the scars that he suffered during his football career at UGA. At the end of the devotion he made a statement that we should all take to mind. He said, “If I was 18 again, I would gladly do it all over again.”
We all suffer scars from activities we participate in. Some of the scars we have are good, and noble activities we go through; and some of them are because of reckless, stupid activities we’ve done. Regardless of why we have the scars they are proof of what we have done, and reminders to us of what kind of lives we lived in the past. Our scars speak about one of two things they either show the glory of God, or our shame.
What we do with these scars speaks more of our present life than they do of past glories or mistakes. I have scars from mistakes I have made in the past, but I hope that I am now being faithful to God, and using these scars to shine God’s glory. (See my testimony.)
I would like to look at one person from the Bible who had scars in his life, but despite these scars he shined God’s glory. I want to talk for a minute about Job. You may know the story of Job. He lost all of his children, and all his posessions; and eventually his body was attacked by Satan. His wife came to him in the middle of his suffering, and told him that he should curse God and die; but Job in his suffering refused to blame God. His friends came to him, and because of their lack of understanding told Job that he was the problem. They told him that he was suffering because of some grievous sin that he had comitted(which was a common belief in the Old Testament), but Job maintained his innocence. In the middle of his suffering Job refused to blame God for causing his suffering even though He did not understand why he was suffering. Job did not understand that he was suffering to shine the glory of God.
I said all of that to say this. Our suffering and sscars, even though we don’t understand it at times, can be used for our benefit and to shine Gof’s glory. In case you don’t know the story of Jobin the end he was glorified by God because he refused to point a finger, and curse God.
We all suffer, and we all go through things that we wish we didn’t; but if we keep our eyes on Christ He will glorify us in the end!
Romans 8:18, “For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us.”
Yes, You Can Ministry 