Dear Daisy,
I grew up in church hearing all the regular sermons and the standard Sunday school lessons. I’m a good person that has tried to live right but have made so many mistakes along the way. In the past few years I’ve re-dedicated my life to Jesus and started studying my Bible beginning in Genesis through to Revelation, I’m amazed at all the things I’ve learned that I wasn’t taught all those years in church. With all the baggage from bad decisions in my life, is it too late for me to get to where God wants me to be. I’m no “spring-chicken!” ~Signed, Am I too late?
Dear, Am I too late?
What a great question for all of us? The good news is you are NOT too late. God’s timing is perfect and He knew exactly when you would reach this point of commitment with Him. What you will discover through continual study of the entire Holy Bible with Him teaching you, is that your life experiences add to the effectiveness of your purpose He created you for.
What might seem like wasted years of mistakes to you, God has been using them. Your experiences that include good decisions and the bad ones, God uses them all for His purposes to build your testimony for you to use to help encourage others who come behind you with similar experiences (Romans 8:28).
God has a plan for all of us before we are born. He places us in our mother’s womb at the exact time we are supposed to be on this earth. Consider Sarah, Abraham’s wife. God did not fulfill His promise to give them a son until Sarah was 90 and Abraham was 100 (Genesis 17). God was not late giving them their son Isaac, He was right on time for His perfect plan to be fulfilled for a purpose they couldn’t see.
Your entire life, God has watched over you. In the moments when you thought you were all alone, He was there; even during the times when you ignored Him and didn’t want His help or want to wait on His answers. We are all guilty of those experiences. This would be a great moment to stop and thank God for His abundant grace and mercy.
What’s next?
Time to armor up!
It is imperative for every committed, wholehearted follower of Jesus to armor up to be fully protected as we follow God’s plan for us.
In Ephesians 6, we are taught about putting on the full armor of God. I’ve spent most of my life not fully understanding that passage. One day I finally had an “aha moment” when the Holy Spirit revealed to me what that meant. What a revelation!!!
What I learned:
- You can’t wear only part of the armor.
- You can’t wear the full armor – until you allow Him to break off all the chains that bind you.
Does that make sense?
Let me try to break that down for you. God’s armor for you will consist of :
- Belt (of truth)
- Body of armor – (God’s righteousness)
- Shoes (of peace)
- Shield (of faith)
- Helmet (of salvation)
- Sword (of the spirit – the Word of God)
- Pray continually and be alert at all times
When soldiers back in the day put on these things they could not have anything of bulk underneath that would hinder them from wearing this armor. What Paul was trying to teach us is that we have to allow God to remove the “chains that bind us” from our past sins so they won’t hinder us wearing the full armor. Think about it. We can’t pick and choose which pieces we want to wear because we don’t want some of those chains removed yet. It wouldn’t be possible to survive the battle wearing only pieces we permitted God to give us, such as, only the helmet of salvation, or the belt of truth. Make sense?
When you re-dedicated your life to God, did you give Him conditions for your relationship? Hopefully not. If you want to follow Jesus, go ALL IN! Either commit to Him with all your heart or not at all. Most of us have wasted enough of our life already, it’s time to get serious about our relationship with Jesus. Am I right?
In order for us to follow God wholeheartedly, we must allow Him to break off EVERTHING first!
- Our thoughts
- Our own ideas of how things should be done
- Our wants
- Our dreams
- Our desires
- Our sins
- Our rebelliousness
- Our disobedient natures
- Our attachment to anything or anyone (Including family. They belong to God anyway. They are His and He will care for them. You must have a personal relationship with Jesus to get your full armor of God. You can’t get to Heaven on someone else’s relationship with Him.)
Make sense?
Once we go “all-in” we are then able to fully armor up with the items required by God to go into battle with Him for victory.
See? You are not to late. It is God’s perfect timing for you. You are exactly where God wants and needs you to be to follow Him to fulfill the purpose He created you.
Isn’t that exciting?!?
Here are scriptures to equip you
Consider printing these out and reading them everyday until they sink deep into your heart.
First, you must allow Jesus to break off all the chains that bind you:
“For in that day,” says the LORD of Heaven’s Armies, “I will break the yoke from their necks and snap their chains. Foreigners will no longer be their masters.” Jeremiah 30:8
“For thou hast broken the yoke of his burden, and the staff of his shoulder, the rod of his oppressor, as in the day of Midian.” Isaiah 9:4
“And it shall come to pass in that day, that his burden shall be taken away from off thy shoulder, and his yoke from off thy neck, and the yoke shall be destroyed because of the anointing.” Isaiah 10:27
“For now will I break his yoke from off thee, and will burst thy bonds in sunder.” Nahum 1:13
“And the tree of the field shall yield her fruit, and the earth shall yield her increase, and they shall be safe in their land, and shall know that I am the LORD, when I have broken the bands of their yoke, and delivered them out of the hand of those that served themselves of them.” Ezekiel 34:27
Once the chains of this world and all that is in it are broken off, it’s time to armor up!
The full armor of God and its purpose
This is why you need the full armor. Each piece plays a role dependent on each other.
Ephesians 6:10-18
10 A final word: Be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power.
11 Put on all of God’s armor so that you will be able to stand firm against all strategies of the devil.
12 For we are not fighting against flesh-and-blood enemies, but against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against mighty powers in this dark world, and against evil spirits in the heavenly places.
13 Therefore, put on every piece of God’s armor so you will be able to resist the enemy in the time of evil. Then after the battle you will still be standing firm.
14 Stand your ground, putting on the belt of truth and the body armor of God’s righteousness.
15 For shoes, put on the peace that comes from the Good News so that you will be fully prepared.
16 In addition to all of these, hold up the shield of faith to stop the fiery arrows of the devil.
17 Put on salvation as your helmet, and take the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.
18 Pray in the Spirit at all times and on every occasion. Stay alert and be persistent in your prayers for all believers everywhere.
Take time to pray this everyday and ask the Holy Spirit to help you armor up. And most importantly, be patient! This is NOT an overnight dressing. Trust God’s timing, and His process. He cares for you and will do this at His pace, not yours. Sit back and relax as you allow Him to lead the way for a change. He’s not in a hurry, so you don’t have to be either. Enjoy resting in His arms as He walks you through this process.
In closing,
Always ask Jesus what you should do in every situation. The Holy Spirit will lead you and guide you. If it’s not okay with Him, He will check your spirit and you will have an uneasy feeling and doubt about going forward. Always follow Jesus; NOT your heart; our hearts are fickle and can’t be trusted. Listen to the Holy Spirit; He is trying to protect you. You have a choice to obey or ignore. Choose to obey and stay under His protection.
“The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?”
Jeremiah 17:9
“Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding.“
Proverbs 3:5
“When you know you grow!”