FAITHPROPHETIC PERSPECTIVEONLY ON WINNERSMAG.COM
I have been sitting with the word redeemed.
It is one of those words we hear so much in church that it can become familiar. We sing about being redeemed. We testify about what God brought us through. Psalm 107:2 tells us, “Let the redeemed of the Lord tell their story.” And yes, I believe we should tell it. I have a testimony, and I am not ashamed to tell what God has done in my life.
But I started thinking about redemption from another perspective.
We say we have been redeemed, but do our actions show it? Does the way we carry ourselves reflect it? Can redemption be seen in our behavior, our character and the way we treat people? We are living in a world that needs Jesus, so what are people learning about Him from those of us who say we belong to Him?
That question is not about trying to look perfect. None of us are. It is not about walking around quoting Scripture all day or trying to convince everybody that we are saved. I am talking about something much more practical. If God has done a work in my life, somewhere along the way that work ought to start showing up in how I live.
Redemption means that something has been recovered, released, bought back or restored. For the believer, that begins with Jesus Christ. We could not redeem ourselves, so Christ paid the price for us. That is the Gospel.
Yet I wonder if sometimes we celebrate being brought out without giving enough attention to how we are living now that we are out.
That is where this became personal for me.
I can talk about what God delivered me from, but what has that deliverance produced in me? Am I wiser? Have I grown? Do I handle people differently? Has going through something given me more compassion, or have I allowed it to make me harder? When I am wrong, can I acknowledge it? When I have been hurt, can I heal without making everybody else pay for what somebody did to me?
Those are not always comfortable questions, but they are necessary ones.
Second Corinthians 5:17 says that if anyone is in Christ, that person is a new creation. I do not believe that means we wake up one morning and suddenly have no issues left to work through. Salvation does not erase our personality, our history or every unhealthy habit overnight. Some things God delivers us from immediately, while other areas require maturity, discipline and a willingness to let Him continue working on us.
That process is part of redemption too.
There are places in my own life where God had to change more than my circumstances. He had to change me. It would have been easy to pray for different people, different opportunities or a different outcome while never allowing God to deal with what was happening inside of me.
Sometimes we want God to redeem the situation while He is trying to redeem the way we think, respond and see ourselves.
And that brings me to identity.
There are people who love God but still carry themselves as though their past owns them. Their mouths say they are free, yet shame is still determining how they enter a room. They are still lowering their heads because of something they did ten years ago, something somebody did to them, a marriage that ended, a business that failed, an addiction they overcame, a season when they lost themselves or a decision they wish they could change.
At some point, we have to believe what we say we believe.
Isaiah 43:1 says, “Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have summoned you by name; you are mine.”
If God says you are His, why are you still allowing your worst season to introduce you?
Being redeemed does not mean denying your history. I would never tell someone to pretend painful things did not happen. Some experiences change us. Some losses leave a mark. Some lessons cost more than we ever imagined they would.
But what happened does not get the final word on who you are.
So hold your head up.
Not with arrogance, but with the understanding that God knew everything about you when He called you His. You do not have to spend the rest of your life apologizing for surviving a season that God has already brought you through.
At the same time, carrying ourselves like redeemed people involves more than confidence. It comes with responsibility.
People are watching how Christians live, and I do not think that is necessarily a bad thing. If we tell people Jesus changes lives, they are going to look for evidence of change. They are going to notice how we conduct business, how we speak about people, how we behave when we are angry and whether our public Christianity matches our private character.
That does not mean every believer becomes a public example of perfection. It means our lives should be moving in the direction of the Christ we proclaim.
Galatians 5 speaks about the fruit of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. I find it interesting that Scripture calls these things fruit.
Fruit grows.
It develops from what has taken root.
Eventually, what is happening beneath the surface becomes visible.
That is the part of redemption I believe we need to talk about more. Not simply what God brought us from, but what He is producing in us because we belong to Him.
Maybe you used to respond to everything out of anger, but now you know when to walk away and pray before you speak. That is growth.
Maybe there was a time when rejection could send you into a place where you questioned your entire worth, but now you know that someone else’s inability to recognize your value does not change what God placed inside you.
Maybe you once believed that forgiving someone meant allowing them unlimited access to your life, and now you understand that forgiveness and healthy boundaries can exist in the same space.
Those changes may never make it into a Sunday morning testimony, but they matter.
They are evidence.
And when I think about the world we are living in, I believe that evidence is important. People do not only need another explanation of Christianity. Many of them need to encounter someone whose life makes them curious about Christ.
Not because we are performing for them.
Because something about us has genuinely changed.
There should be a difference in the way we love, lead, serve, recover from disappointment and handle what God places in our hands. Even when we get it wrong, redemption teaches us that we can take responsibility, make corrections and keep growing.
Perhaps that is where the prophetic perspective comes in.
We have spent a lot of time telling the world that Jesus redeems. I believe He does.
Now the question becomes whether we are willing to allow redemption to reach beyond our testimony and into our everyday lives.
Psalm 107:2 says, “Let the redeemed of the Lord tell their story.”
Tell your story.
But remember, people are also reading the parts you never say out loud.
May the life we live tell them that we have been redeemed.