The Summer of Brave #1 – A Brave Comeback
“Don’t give up after the first (or second) failure.
Your worst choice on your worst day can never disqualify you from God’s love.
”
What most keeps me in awe of God is that He created Eve with free will, the very thing that opened the door to the possibility that at some point, she would be faced with a significant choice.
We don’t often think of Eve as brave, but as the door opener to sin. Had she been fully content, she wouldn’t have listened to the serpent. One moment, she had everything anyone could ever want. In the next moment, biting into the fruit from the forbidden tree, she lost it all. Where is the bravery in that?
I believe Eve had an old story and so do you.
In Eve’s old story, she was deceived by dishonesty. The enemy’s voice must have been convincing and believable when he told her, “you will certainly not die” by eating the forbidden fruit. But because it was a lie, it stood in direct opposition to God’s truth. To consider:
What’s the biggest lie consuming me right now?
Where did it come from?
What truth can replace the lie?
What will it take for me to say, “no more!” to that lie?
In Eve’s old story, she was discouraged by defeat. Eve experienced an ‘uh-oh’ moment as soon as the deed was done, and the instant shame in her nakedness and fear had her take flight to hide from her Creator.
To consider:
Do I continually experience defeat in the same area (lack of faith, jealousy, discontentment, anxiety, anger?)
What’s my biggest area of shame?
When am I tempted to run and hide from God?
I believe Eve had a new, brave story and so do you.
Eve chose to continue to be brave in a marriage when trust was broken. I am sure Eve would have loved to remind Adam (and perhaps she did), that it takes two to tango, and he was standing beside her and took the fruit as a full accomplice to the deed.
Eve chose to be brave as a mother when her children were broken. What would you do when one of your children murdered the other? Did she feel responsible? But she lived to mother another child and another, and when her fourth son, Seth, was born she acknowledged God, saying, “God has granted me another child in place of Abel, since Cain killed him.” (Genesis 4:25) She faced the truth head on and this time she was not running from God but seeing Him in the middle of her circumstance.
Eve chose to embrace her destiny in her new life. She became a woman of bravery and influence. After the birth of Seth, “…people began to call on the name of the Lord.” (Genesis 4:26). Was it Eve’s faith in God and gratitude towards Him that influenced the next generations to remember their Creator and call on Him for themselves?
Eve could have easily become bitter and despondent, as her life had carried so much loss thus far. But she kept going, walking out her destiny as the mother of all living things. She influenced future generations with her testimony about the God of the second chance. And so can you.
Declare your testimony of God’s grace and forgiveness in your life. That’s how you show your brave.
Your worst choice on your worst day will never disqualify you from God’s love.
God is bigger than your first mistake, or your second or third. He didn’t abandon Eve and He will never abandon you.
You have a destiny. Believe it. Live it.
I believe in you!
Cathie