The Power of I Am: Two Words That Will Change Your Life Today (25 page)

Don’t go around dwelling on your past mistakes. Quit replaying all the times that you’ve failed, the times you gave in to temptation, the time you blew the relationship, the time it didn’t work out. All that’s going to do is depress you. Just like you have a remote control to change the channel on the television, you have to change the channel in your mind. You will not be free from guilt or enjoy your life if you are constantly replaying the negative memories of your past. If you’re going to replay anything, replay your victories. Replay the time that you honored God. Replay the times that you helped someone else in need. That will change your perspective.

A few years ago a young lady named Rachel Smith won the Miss USA beauty pageant. She is a bright young girl who goes all over the world helping underprivileged children. Later that year, she competed in the Miss Universe pageant. As she walked out on stage during the evening gown competition, all by herself, with millions of people watching around the world, on live television, she lost her footing and fell flat on her backside. She was embarrassed, but she got up as quickly as she could and put a smile back on her face. The audience wasn’t very forgiving. There were jeers and laughter and boos, which was very humiliating. In spite of the fall, she made it into the top five of the competition. Her next task was to answer a question randomly chosen by the judges. She walked back onto the stage where she had fallen just a few minutes earlier. A judge picked a question out of the hat. Her question was, “If you could relive any moment of your life over again and do it differently, what moment would that be?”

Her most embarrassing moment was just twenty minutes earlier. How many of us would say, “I want to redo that. I want to relive that”? But without missing a beat, she said, “If I could relive any
moment of my life again, I would relive my trip to Africa, working with the orphans, seeing their beautiful smiles, feeling their warm embraces.” Instead of reliving a moment of pain, a moment of embarrassment, she chose to relive a moment of joy, a moment when she was making a difference, when she was proud of herself.

In life, we’re all going to have times where we fall, embarrassing moments, unfair situations. I can assure you they will come up on the movie screen of your mind again and again. You have to get good at changing the channel. Put on your accomplishments. Put on your victories. Put on the times when you’ve been proud of yourself.

Friend, your sins have already been forgiven. Every mistake you’ve made and ever will make has already been paid in full. The real question is, will you receive God’s mercy? You don’t have to go around feeling guilty, feeling wrong inside, not excited about your future. God is running toward you today. He knew every mistake you would ever make. He doesn’t love you less. He loves you more. He’s not just the God of Abraham; He’s the God of Jacob. He is saying, “You may have blown it. You may have failed. But I’m not disappointed in you. I still love you. I still believe in you. I still have an amazing future in front of you.”

Your performance may not have been perfect, but because your heart is perfect toward Him, God is going to show Himself strong in your behalf. If you’ll shake off the guilt and receive God’s mercy, you will not only live freer, but you will still become all you were created to be.

W
e’ve all heard the phrase,
you’ve been framed
. Most of the time we think of it as a bad thing. We’ve been set up, made to look as though we did something that we didn’t do. But the Scripture talks about a different type of frame. It says, “The worlds were framed by the Word of God.” It’s not just talking about the physical
worlds
. The word in the original language is
eons
, meaning “ages” or “times.” It’s saying that God has a frame around your times. He has put a fence, a boundary, around your life. Nothing can penetrate your frame that God doesn’t allow. Trouble, sickness, accidents—they can’t just randomly happen. The frame is set.

You don’t have to worry about your future. There’s a frame around your health, a frame around your children, and a frame around your finances. It’s a boundary set by the Creator of the universe. Not only can nothing get in without God’s permission, but even better news, you can’t get out. You can’t make a mistake big enough to break out of that frame. You can’t get too addicted, too discouraged, too angry. It’s a destiny frame. God won’t let you get so far off course that you can’t still fulfill your purpose. You may come
right up to the edge and be about to do something to get yourself in trouble, but you’ll bump into the frame. God will push you right back.

I had a man tell me how he was so fed up with his boss. He had worked at the company for many years. His boss was always condescending, making sarcastic remarks, and this man had had all he could take. He was about to give his boss a piece of his mind. He knew he’d get fired, but at this point he didn’t care. As he lay in bed the night before, he had his speech all lined up and was steaming over it, thinking,
I’m going to tell him, “I don’t like you. I don’t need you. You’re a lousy boss.”
On and on. He was going to let it all hang out.

The first thing the next morning, he marched into his boss’s office without knocking, all fired up. Then the strangest thing happened. He got flustered. He couldn’t remember what he was going to say. His mind totally went blank. He looked at the boss and said, “Uh… uh… uh… would you like a cup of coffee?” He told me later, “Joel, I tried to tell him off. I tried to be mean. I just couldn’t do it.” What happened? He bumped into the frame. God knows how to protect you, not only from accidents, not only from the wrong people. God will protect you from yourself. Sometimes we’re the most dangerous thing we face.

At the family reunion, you’re about to tell your relative off. Somehow you feel a peace come over you. Or they walk out of the room at just the right time. That’s not a coincidence. You’d better thank God for your frame.

Out on the freeway, that person who cut you off, you’re about to give them a signal with your hand. And I’m not talking about, “One
Way Jesus.” You pull up next to them so aggravated, throw your hand up, but instead of doing what you thought, you just smile and give them a big friendly wave.

What happened? You bumped into your frame. This frame has kept us out of more trouble than we realize. You’d better thank God for your frame or you might not still have a job. If it had not been for the frame, you might not still be married. How many times were we going to tell our spouse exactly what we thought, and exactly what they should do, and we hear the still, small voice saying, “Don’t do it. Bite your tongue. Walk away.” We take the advice. That’s the frame.

In the Scripture, David experienced this frame. He and his men had been protecting a wealthy man by the name of Nabal who had thousands of sheep. They were camped next door. Just to do him a favor, they made sure that no bandits bothered him or his property. One day David asked his men to go ask Nabal for some food. Nabal was very rude and an evil man. He told those men, “I don’t owe you anything. I didn’t ask you to do this. Get off my property!”

When David heard what Nabal had said, he was furious. He told his men, “Pack up. We’re going to go wipe out Nabal and anyone that’s halfway associated with him.” This set David off. As he headed toward Nabal’s house, angry, offended, and ready to take vengeance, God sent a young lady named Abigail, who was Nabal’s wife, to intercept David before he struck. She met David on the road with gifts and food.

Abigail said, “David, you are called to be our next king. You are
destined to do great things. My husband, Nabal, is a fool. Why are you going to waste your time fighting with him? You could miss your destiny.” She spoke sense into him.

David replied, “You’re exactly right,” turned around, and went back home.

You know what Abigail was? She was a part of the frame. God ordained her to be there at the right time, to know exactly the right thing to say. Had David gotten distracted, killed Nabal and all his men, caused a big stir by shedding innocent blood, that mistake could have kept him from taking the throne. David went right up to the edge, but he bumped into his frame.

God is so good. He will always send the right person to say the right thing to keep you from missing your destiny. David said, “Where would I be without the goodness of God?” He could have said, “Where would I be without this frame?”

Jonah experienced the frame. God told him to go to the city of Nineveh, but he didn’t want to go there. He said, “God, that’s what You want me to do. I want to go my own way.” He went in the opposite direction. God will always let you do your own thing. He’ll let you go your own way, but He is so merciful—at some point, you’re going to bump into your frame. He let Jonah go the wrong direction. Jonah ended up on a ship out at sea in the middle of a huge storm. He finally told the crew that he was the problem. This crew
had no mercy. They said, “Jonah, you’re the problem. Good riddance. You’re out of here.” They threw him overboard.

You would think this would be the end of Jonah’s life. He brought the trouble on himself. He knew the right thing, but he did the opposite. He had nobody to blame except himself. I’m sure Jonah felt that he was finished. He said his good-byes, made his peace, and down he went. But what Jonah didn’t realize was the frame God had put around his life. Yes, he made a mistake, but it wasn’t outside the frame. Yes, he was in trouble, but that trouble wasn’t a surprise to God. God allowed the difficulty into Jonah’s frame not to harm him but to push him toward his divine destiny. When things looked hopeless to Jonah, when he was out in the sea treading water with no chance to survive, along comes a big fish and swallows him. You know what the fish was? As Abigail was to David’s frame, the fish was part of Jonah’s frame. Three days later that fish spit him out onto dry ground. Jonah said, “You know what? I think I’ll go to Nineveh after all.”

As Jonah did, you can run as much as you want, but the good news is you’ll never run out of your frame. You’ll keep bumping up against it again and again. It will always push you back toward your divine destiny. In other words, you can go out and party, live it up, not give God the time of day. But while your friends are partying, while they’re enjoying life, deep down you’ll be miserable, thinking,
Why can’t I enjoy this? Why am I so unsatisfied?
It’s because of the frame God has put on your life. You are ruined for living a defeated, mediocre, compromising life. God’s calling is on you. You can go your own way, but God has a way of getting you back on course.

God has built a frame that you can’t penetrate. The enemy can’t penetrate. Drugs can’t penetrate. The wrong people can’t penetrate.
The Most High God has fenced you in. He has put boundaries around your life so strong that all the forces of darkness cannot get in and you cannot get out. And yes, you can make mistakes. You can run from the call. You can try to ignore it. But the frame around your life was put in place before the foundation of time. When God breathed His life into you, He framed your world.

That’s why, parents, we don’t have to worry about our children. They’ve been framed. They may get off course, but sooner or later they’ll bump into the frame. They may run with the wrong crowd, but the frame is up. They can’t go too far to miss their destiny. They’re going to bump into it again, again, and again, until they finally say, “I’m tired of fighting. God, I’m going to let You have Your way. I’m going to honor You with my life.”

Some of you, because you had a praying mother, or a praying grandmother, or you had relatives who honored God, you might as well give up. You don’t have a chance. Your frame is so set. You’re going to keep bumping into it until God gets you to where you’re supposed to be.

I know a mother who was so concerned about her son. He was making very poor choices. She tried to convince him to quit running with the wrong crowd and to come to church. He just wouldn’t do it. He ended up in jail. One Sunday morning he was watching
television in the common area. Another inmate came in and wanted to watch something different. They started arguing and ended up in a struggle for the remote control, trying to get it out of each other’s hands.

About that time a huge inmate, who looked like a professional football player, walked in. Six foot six, with muscles bulging out of his shirt, he grabbed the remote control and said, “Give me that thing. I’ll decide what we’re going to watch.” He started flipping through the channels and came across our program. He said, “We’re going to watch Joel today.” The other two inmates got up to leave, but he grabbed the one young man by the shirt and pulled him back down and said, “Sit down. You’re going to watch with me.” What happened? He bumped into the frame. A really big frame, I might add.

Parents, God has the right people not only lined up for you, but also for your children, for your grandchildren. Quit worrying about them and start thanking God for the frame. Don’t ever go around telling your friends how your children are so off course, and they’re never going to do what’s right. No, zip that up and get in agreement with God. “Lord, I want to thank You that my children have been framed. I’ve committed them into Your hands. And Lord, You said the seed of the righteous will be mighty in the land.”

As the inmate was watching the program with this six-foot-six inmate making sure he watched, he began to feel God’s presence. He started weeping. Right there in the jail, that big inmate led him to Christ. Now I see this young man at our services all the time sitting next to his mother.

You may not see how it can happen. That’s not your job. Your job is to stay in peace, knowing that your children have been framed. Your prayers are activating God’s power. When you pray, just imagine the frame is getting smaller, the boundaries are getting tighter.
God won’t let them go as far as they used to. He will make them uncomfortable in compromising situations. He won’t let them enjoy doing wrong as they did before. God knows how to tighten the frame.

When I was nineteen years old, I was driving home from a ball game very late at night. There was nobody on the freeway. I had a sports car. The fastest I had driven it was about seventy-five miles an hour. I thought,
This would be a great time to see how fast this car will really go.
It was one o’clock in the morning, five lanes of freeway in front of me. I was on the top of a big bridge and could see about two miles down the road. There was hardly anybody on the road, just a car or two here and there, so I put the pedal to the floor and my car took off going very fast. I’m not going to tell you how fast, because my mother will read this!

But as I was flying down the highway, feeling so cool, I looked over and there was a car right next to me. I thought,
I can’t believe it. He wants to race. He can’t race me. He’s got a piece of junk.
So I pushed the gas pedal down even farther, took off, and shot ahead. When I looked over, there he was again, but this time when I looked, he was holding up his badge. I nearly went to Heaven right then and there. My heart stopped. I looked back over, and he mouthed the words, “Slow down!” I drove thirty miles an hour the rest of the way home.

Parents, God has a frame around your children. Even when they do dumb things, they can’t get out of the frame. God will always have the right person, whether it’s Abigail, a six-foot-six inmate, or an off-duty police officer going down the freeway at one in the morning. We can’t get out of the frame.