God’s Promise and Scripture

God’s Promise: God Redeems

Scripture: I have blotted out your transgressions like a cloud and your sins like mist; return to me, for I have redeemed you. (Isaiah 44:22)

Devotional

My name is Raegan, and I joined Onward when my husband and I moved to Frisco in 2021. We both have had the honor of serving in Onward’s student ministry. I grew up in a Christian home and came to know the Lord when I was 12 years old. My high school years were a time of deep growth in my faith—I learned how to read the Bible, studied God’s promises, and was blessed with amazing church and small group leaders who encouraged me constantly. Then I went off to college, excited to be on my own for the first time. What I didn’t realize was just how important my church community had been for me. I was more excited about all Texas A&M had to offer rather than finding a consistent church community.

Early in my freshman year, I tried out different churches, but that soon turned into a season of “church hopping” and never really finding true community. My college years were marked by me trying to do Christian things—serving at random church events or as a camp counselor—while also getting pulled into the things the world had to offer. I never had a solid Christian community to run with, so I kept stumbling. It felt like I was living half in the Christian bubble and half in the college party scene. I was lost and couldn’t decide which half of my life I liked better.

Thankfully, I eventually graduated, and God used that change of scenery to draw me back to Him. Moving to a new city meant new friends and a chance to decide who I wanted to be. I knew the way I lived in college always felt off, but I honestly didn’t care at the time. When I moved to Dallas, everything felt more permanent. I realized I didn’t want to be someone who was halfway in for Jesus. I broke up with my college boyfriend because I knew I didn’t want to marry someone who just liked the idea of Jesus—I wanted a husband who was truly in love with Him. I wanted my life to be marked not by how many nights I could go out and have temporary fun, but by how I could use my time to build up the eternal kingdom.

God used my transition to Dallas to redeem those four lost years of college. He changed my heart and my aim. He gave me the sweetest community of eight single girls, most of whom were in a similar spot—trying to figure out how to live for Jesus after we’d all wasted a lot of our college years. He redeemed friendships that just six months earlier were my “going-out” friends, and turned them into the girls I was now serving with at church. He redeemed my broken college relationship, transforming that boyfriend from someone who sort of liked Jesus into the man who is now my husband and is so in love with Jesus. God took me from being obsessed with being known and concerned with others’ opinions, and redeemed me so that my identity is now rooted in Christ.

We serve a God who redeems. As it says in Isaiah 44:22, “I have blotted out your transgressions like a cloud and your sins like mist; return to me, for I have redeemed you.” He takes our sin and brokenness and uses them to bring about His kingdom and righteousness. 

Over the past seven years, I’ve had the joy of being part of so much for His kingdom. I’ve watched several of the girls from our singles community group step into faithful marriages and start families. I’ve had the privilege of serving our students at Onward, witnessing the truths of Scripture slowly shape them to look more like Jesus. God has let me see eternities change. I’ve seen our church family at Onward care for us as we welcomed two kids into the world, and my marriage has been continually strengthened by our community group pressing in and loving us so well. God took a broken, wandering college girl like me and redeemed me into a faithful follower of Christ. I’m no longer lost—I know my aim is Christ. Our God redeems.

“I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” (Galatians 2:20)

REFLECTION QUESTIONS

1. When you think about the word “redeem,” what comes to mind? How have you seen God’s redemption in your own life or the lives of those around you? 

2. Looking back, are there times when you felt “lost” or far from God? What did God use to draw you back to Himself?

3. Isaiah 44:22 speaks of God blotting out our transgressions. Is there an area of your life where you need to accept God’s forgiveness and return to Him this season?