Wearing a t-shirt with an encouraging message can uplift a lot of spirits – and even inspire a whole radio program!
Click here to take a look at Rainey's shirt!
SHAUNA: I’m Shauna, with Joni Eareckson Tada: Sharing Hope. Thank you for joining us. Now, Joni, I know you have a whole team of get-up girls who, well, they help you get up in the morning!
JONI: They sure do and one of them is called Rainey. She’s a good friend. And we’ve got this thing about encouraging each other. She often does it with great t-shirts that she wears in the morning when she comes to get me up. She came in one morning not long ago, and she was sporting a light blue t-shirt, and it read on the front: “Look back and thank God; look forward and trust God.” We both love that saying! And isn’t that true? In fact, if you’d like to see Rainey in that wonderful shirt, I’ve posted a photo of her on my radio page today. So, before we close out, be sure you take a quick look at joniradio.org. The shirt is great, but you’re going to love Rainey’s smile too. And it’s true, look back and thank God, and then you can look forward and trust Him. And we do that because the grace of God enables us to look forward to the future and look back with thanksgiving.
Now, some Christians have a hard time looking back and thanking God. They’ve committed more than a few sins and that, in a way, still may bring them shame. But listen to what Paul David Tripp says about past regrets in his devotional book, “New Morning Mercies.” He says, “It's a grace to regret. Grace allows you to face your sin, to own it and not shift the blame. But it is also grace that forgives what has been exposed. Grace forces you to feel the pain of your regrets, but never does it ask you to pay for them, because the price has already been paid by Jesus. Colossians 2 talks about how “the record of debt that stood against us has been canceled by the sacrifice of Jesus.” So, you can look back, but with your burden lifted by forgiving grace. And it is good to look back and celebrate the rescue of grace. Grace lives at the intersection between clarity of [hindsight] and hope for the future. And that grace is yours for the taking. You don't have to rewrite your past to try to make yourself look more righteous than you ever really were. You can stare the truth in the face because of what Jesus has done for you. You can own what needs to be owned and confess what needs to be confessed, and then move on to live in a new and better way. The same grace that forgives your past empowers you to live in a new way in the future. So, look back and look forward. God’s grace enables you to do both, celebrating forgiveness for the past and embracing power for a new and better future.”
Don’t you just love what Paul David Tripp says there? I know that before I had my accident, I really messed up as a Christian. And even after I broke my neck, I was still ashamed of myself. But somewhere down the line, decades ago, I looked back and I knew that God had rescued me with His grace. And I don’t think I would have realized that had it not been for all the hardships and suffering. I can look way back and thank God that he rescued me from myself. And that informs and shapes my faith about the future. I could look forward and trust God because of the compassionate way He dealt with me in the past. So, this is the hope I’m sharing with you today! Look back and thank God. And then look forward and trust God. And grace helps you to do both.
SHAUNA: And Joni, I know we want everyone to see Rainey’s great t-shirt [and her beautiful smile]. So, friend, go to joniradio.org today.
© Joni and Friends