Dear friends… what more can life do to you?
A sweet and simple question to ponder 🤔 about. My friend usually tells me when life throws lemon at me, I shouldn't hesitate to gather those lemon 🍋 and make juice from them.
You've been through so much already. You've seen the good, and you've felt the worst of it. There were days you felt broken. Days you felt crushed. Days it felt like you could not go any further.
You gave your all to people who could not value it. You stood for people you would have sacrificed everything for. And in your moment of vulnerability, they walked over you like you meant nothing.
That kind of pain doesn't just hurt your heart. It touches your identity.
You were mistreated. Misjudged. Your loyalty was taken for granted.
And now you find yourself asking a very honest question… what is the point of being good?
If this feels like you, then hear this carefully.
You were not broken so that you would remain broken.
God did not allow you to go through everything you have been through so that the worst version of you would emerge. No. There is purpose, even if you cannot see it yet. It may not make sense right now, but that does not mean it is meaningless.
Whether some of it came from your own decisions or from life happening around you, God is not done with your story.
And there is something you have been doing that you have not given yourself credit for.
You have been holding your ground. You have been holding your faith. You keep waking up, choosing to move forward, even when nothing around you reflects what you are hoping for. You keep telling yourself life is still worth living, even when your reality feels empty.
You are like the man at the Beautiful Gate in Acts 3. In a place called "beautiful," yet nothing about his condition looked like it. That is how many people live. Positioned near promise, but still carrying pain.
But hear this.
God does not waste pain.
So go through it, but don't let it go through you.
Scripture says in Romans 8:28 that all things work together for good to those who love God and are called according to His purpose. Not that all things are good, but God is able to work through all things.
And James 1:12 says that the one who endures trial is blessed, because after he has been tested, he will receive the crown of life.
So what you are going through is not the end. It is a process.
But you must be careful with your response in this season.
Do not let what people did to you change who God has called you to be.
Choose love, even when it is hard. Choose hope, even when it feels unreasonable. Choose forgiveness, not because they deserve it, but because you refuse to carry what will poison your heart.
Do not say, "I will never love again."
Just because someone mishandled what you gave them does not mean what you gave had no value. It means they lacked the capacity to recognize it.
Galatians 6:9 says, do not grow weary in doing good, for in due season you will reap, if you do not give up.
God does not forget. He sees. He remembers. And He rewards.
So do not measure your life by how people treated you. Measure it by what God is still able to do with you.
You are not failing. You are not losing. It may feel like you are being broken, but that is not the full story.
There are moments where God reshapes you. Not to destroy you, but to refine you.
Just like a grape must be pressed for the wine to come out, sometimes pressure reveals what was hidden inside you all along.
So if life feels like it is pressing you, do not lose hope. There is something being produced in you.
And one day, you will look back and realize this truth clearly.
What the enemy intended for evil, God has turned for your good.
So don't give up now. You are still in the process. And God is not finished with you.
You're reading from your handsome friend John Petra.