What We Were, 1 Corinthians 1:26a (NIV)**

** I chose to quote the NIV inparticular for this verse because it highlights the point which the Lord made in my heart.
All other translations also speak on the same point, but did not highlight it as well.

"Brothers, think of what you were when you were called."

     What were you when the Lord called you? Were you a moral and upright individual? Were you faithful and religious, trying with all your heart to serve the Lord and live for Him? Not likely. One of the most amazing parts about God's grace is that He chose to die for us, chose to redeem us, chose to make the ultimate loving sacrifice while we were yet in our sins. We weren't looking for Him, we weren't searching for Him. But He was after us.

     Take a moment and really, truly remember what you were when God called you. Where were you in your life? Were you happy? Content? Fulfilled? Were you satisfied within? Or were you empty? How did people react to you? How did your family think of you? Knowing the futility of life and its brevity, did not death loom over your head as a haunting and terrifying shadow?

     What would happen were I to die right now? Where would I be? Would there even be a me anymore? Or would I simply cease to exist?

     Perhaps you were religious. But the burden of trying to fulfill a law weighed you down. Maybe you were into some pretty serious things-- you were a thief, a liar, a cheater. You hurt people, and you didn't care. Maybe you idolized yourself. Maybe you were so empty that you would have done almost anything to fill that void in your soul. You lived for pleasure, fulfilling every lust that came your way.

     Or maybe, maybe, you knew that you needed love, that love was what would fill that void. Everything that the world told you said that finding the perfect person would fulfill that need. You searched, gave all that you had, even sacrificed your morals and purity, but were left alone and brokenhearted, despairing of life itself. Until one day, when the loving hands of the Lord reached down to comfort you, and He whispered in your ear, "I love you, and I gave everything for you. Come to Me, and thirst no more".

     It is important that we stop and reflect on where we were when the Lord called us, because when we see what we once were, when we remember the sin and depravity in our hearts we gain all the more appreciation for what God has done for us and in us. We all need to move forward in the Lord, as it is written in Philippians 3:12-14:

Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.

But we also need to remember enough of the past to one, not go back to it, and two, remember the wonderful works that the Lord has done in your heart! One day the Lord gave me a glimpse of who I used to be before I knew Him. To see what I once was, where I was when He called me, and to see where I am now filled my heart with joy and thankfulness that He, in His infinite mercy and grace, chose to save me! As many blessings as the Lord bestows upon us, I still think that the greatest blessing ever is being able to see and know first hand the life-changing power of God in the heart of man.