God uses us despite our failures

I am reminded of how in early spring each year i would walk through a wooded area near my home that has many maple trees on it.Each year about the beginning of April i would see that the owner had tapped the trees to gather sap from them.While walking through the trail this year i noticed one tree inparticular that had many spigots in it.Now you have to realize this tree was a huge maple but had lost about 80 % of its top the previous year. Most of this tree had been laying on the ground rotting away for the past year.This tree to me was a mess standing there with only a huge trunk and and area ripped open where the major top portion had fallen off and one shoot coming out of the top.It was a tree i would never consider tapping if i were selecting trees .But the owner realized something i didn't , even though this tree looked disastrous the trunk of the tree and its roots were still given the source of life.

Sometimes our christian lives are like that tree ,maybe because of circumstances of life, or sinful habits that dont get broken or other reasons , does the picture of our christian life not look so glorious.We often believe in those situations that God cannot use us at all, we look at our failures and shortcomings and think we are no longer worthy, so we spiral down even into a worse state than what we were.But the God who created us is the same God who knows everthing about us.If we look through the bible we see many men and women who were used by God that did not have it all together, here is a short list.

• Elijah – Was suicidal.
• Joseph – Was abused.
• Job – Went bankrupt.
• Moses – Had a speech problem.
• Gideon – Was afraid.
• Samson – Was a womanizer.
• Rahab – Was a prostitute.

Despite their failures God still used them , because they were still connected to the source of Life.

Just like the Maple tree even though we look a mess we still can produce fruit by staying connected to that life giving Holy Spirit.