Chaz suffered as a child. He reflected, “Mum always wanted to be loved, but she used to put her trust in the wrong men.” When he was only seven she blamed Chaz for breaking up a relationship, saying to him: “I hate you. It’s all your fault. I wish you’d never been born.” He told himself, “I will never trust anyone in my life again.”
Over the years he descended into drugs, crime and prison. Then a former partner introduced Chaz to Jesus. As part of his journey of following Christ, he read how God called Abram into a new life. He knew immediately that God was calling him to leave his old ways behind: “The Lord had said to Abram, ‘Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you’” (Genesis 12:1). Chaz said, “Everyone knew me as a criminal and a drug addict. And I knew that God was calling me out of that.” Chaz knew that he had to leave his old life behind: “I’m a Christian, and I just need to follow God.”
With God’s help, Chaz changed, and he now spends his time as a support worker, helping others to start a new life. God will graciously call and lead us too, even as He did Abram and Chaz. When we put our trust in God through Jesus, He’ll set us free of our old ways.
By Amy Boucher Pye
REFLECT & PRAY
How have you seen God setting you free from sinful patterns of behaviour? In what areas do you yearn for God to change you?
Freeing God, You promise to release me from my sins and wrongdoing. Help me to cling to You and receive Your love, that I might bear Your fruit.
SCRIPTURE INSIGHT
Abraham is included in the list in Hebrews 11 of those who were “commended for their faith,” but did not receive “what had been promised” (v. 39). This chapter is a reminder that the only way to live and to please God is by faith (v. 6). Those living by faith were those who chose to live as “foreigners and strangers on earth”—people who had refused to return to the life they had left behind and who “[longed] for a better country—a heavenly one” ( vv. 13–16).
Because of what Jesus did on the cross, we “are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God’s people and also members of his household” (Eph. 2:19).
K. T. Sim
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