The Redeemed Life

Grabbing coffee with a friend recently, we were discussing pieces of our lives. In the middle of the normal chit-chat, my friend started sharing about a moment when her heart was able to fully understand how God had redeemed her life. And as she shared, I was reminded of my beautifully redeemed life, of just how much God has redeemed in me.

Years ago, what had once been a gaping wound found healing; and the part of me that seemed most broken is the part of me that God is now regularly using for his glory. I lost my voice in the broken during that time in my life. I remember sitting across from a friendly and wise face, sharing about the broken pieces of me, and the words back to me were completely unexpected…the broken took away my voice.

It isn’t lost on me that years later, much of where God has called me requires me to use my voice—the voice that was broken, the voice that seemed lost forever. Talk about beautifully redeemed. What was once broken is now becoming whole. What Satan wanted to destroy, God uses for his glory. A beautifully timed reminder that God is in the business of making broken people whole in the most unexpected ways.

How has God redeemed your life?

As Easter approaches, let’s remember the darkness of that day when Jesus was crucified. All looked lost, all felt lost, and hope seemed gone. And we sit here remembering that hopelessness, remembering what our lives were like before we knew Christ. Lives filled with the dirt and grime of our sin-filled existence, a purposeless living with no hope.

But then comes Sunday, and he was and is no longer in the tomb. HE HAS RISEN!! Death lost. Heaven won. You won. I won. Christ redeemed you and me; in the most painful way possible, he bought us back from our grime-filled life, and we are now forever his. Revel in the beauty of that love, the painful beauty of the Easter story. He is RISEN. We have HOPE. We have LIFE EVERLASTING in HEAVEN. This is our everything.

As it is written, there is no one righteous, not even one. Romans 3:10

But God demonstrates his own love for us in this; while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Romans 5:8

“Crucify him!” they shouted. “Why? What crime has he committed?” Asked Pilate. Mark 15:13-14

They crucified him. Mark 15:24

And Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” Mark 15:34

With a loud cry, Jesus breathed his last. Mark 15:37

But when they looked up, they saw the stone, which was very large, had been rolled away. Mark 16:4

Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here; he has risen! Luke 24:6

He was taken up into heaven and he sat at the right hand of God. Mark 16:19

The righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. Romans 3:22

But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves to God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 6:22-23

Go into the world and preach the good news to all creation. Mark 16:15

I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes. Romans 1:16

This is an updated edition of a post originally published on Rachel Rae Anderson

Featured Image by Cdoncel on Unsplash