The Blame Game

"There's no person on earth or devil in hell that can keep you from the greatness God has for you."  Joyce Meyer said this very early on in her message that she delivered at C3 2011.  It's something that has stirred in me since I heard it.  I knew something would grow from it and I knew that God wanted me to see something through it.  And over the last weeks God has gently nudged me towards what that phrase means for me and what I think it means for a lot of us.

Something else Joyce Meyer said is that God has placed greatness in all of us.  It was a nice statement to applaud and say Amen to.  But to believe? But to grab onto and claim as mine? It really wasn't even anything I thought about during her message.  But I have since.  And I've accepted that God has placed greatness in me.  I believe it.  And I believe I haven't even begun to see the fullness of that greatness in me.

But why do we (or maybe just I) have such a hard time believing that? Accepting that? And ACTING on that? It's the first statement that finally answered that for me.  We all go through "stuff" in life.  We all have people that wrong us.  While the difficulty or amount of "stuff" is different for each of us, the bottom line is that we ALL go through it.  As I reflected on Joyce's testimony, I realized the "stuff" she has overcome in her life to achieve her greatness.  She endured things that most of us can't even fathom and she has allowed God to bring greatness through it and in spite of it.

There have been times where I believe that I have caught a glimpse of the greatness that God has for me.  But one thing has always held me still.  My "stuff".  Or probably more accurately, the memories of my "stuff".  At times, when I've been "still", I've found myself blaming people from my past.  If so-and-so had not done this or had done that differently, or if this event hadn't happened...Then my life would be different.  Then I could achieve that greatness.

What I've come to realize is that the greatness that God has in store for me is a part of all that has shaped me.  I've always know that the combined experiences of my life have made me who I am today. Good or bad, they've all brought growth, change, perspective & hopefully some wisdom.  But I've allowed the devil to make me believe that it's taken away or lessened the greatness God has in store for me and through me.  I let myself believe that my chance to experience greatness was missed or lost.  Until now!

Now, I wholeheartedly believe that there is no person in this world that can change or take away the greatness that God has in store for me.  There is no event that take that greatness.  And there is no devil in hell, no matter how hard he tries, that can take away what God has in store for me.  My past does not  take away my greatness.  Past hurts, wrongs, mistakes and trials do not change what God has in store for me.  My God, who knows me to my core, says that he has GREAT plans for me.  He doesn't care about my past.  He sees my future.

I think that's something that a lot of us miss.  We need to hear that God's greatness in us didn't get taken away because of "stuff".  It's there for all of us. God's greatness is in ALL of us.