How Christians can walk into the new year with Romans 8:28 confidence
An ex-porn star who left the industry and surrendered her life to Christ and her pastor-husband shared how Christians can walk into the new year with a Romans 8:28 type of confidence regardless of what sinful struggles they faced in the past year.
Brittni De La Mora, an author and speaker who previously worked in the porn industry, and her husband, the Rev. Richard De La Mora, of “Love Always Ministries,” reassured listeners that God will use their loss, suffering and challenges endured in 2022 as part of their testimony and to glorify Him, in the latest episode of their “Let’s Talk Purity” podcast.
“We're at the end of the year. And maybe things haven't necessarily gone your way or you've just been in this mess that you can't seem to get yourself out of,” Brittni said. “Maybe you've been surrounded by darkness or maybe you've lost some hope because your life doesn't look the way that you thought that it would look. … I just want to encourage you and remind you today that the puzzle pieces of your life are going to come together.”
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“And when they do, and you see the entirety of your life and why you had to go through everything that you went through to bring you to where you will be, you are going to just be praising God. … Because when God is the one who's putting the puzzle pieces of your life together, you can count on Him that it is going to be something beautiful.”
Brittni said that Christians should look to Romans 8:28 as they get ready to enter the new year. "We know that God works all things together for good of those who love Him and are called according to His purpose," she said, quoting the verse.
In previous podcasts, Brittni has been open about her past struggles while working in the porn industry and battling addictions to cocaine and Adderall, Xanax and Oxycodone.
During those seven years, Brittni said she discovered her faith after she encountered the Word of God, which spoke to her amid her battles. She was later delivered from the industry and from addiction, which she said was only possible through the grace of Jesus Christ.
“In my life, I was a porn star. I was a drug addict. I worked in the strip club. … I was in prostitution, all kinds of mental illnesses; but when God gave me the victory, He now uses me to go and bring other people victory as well,” Brittni shared.
Speaking to Christians who backslid and succumbed to the temptations that are stumbling blocks for them, she reminded them that as long as they turn away from their sins, repent and seek forgiveness, God will forgive them.
The puzzle pieces of the lives of Christians who continue to surrender to Jesus and seek God are “going to come together, and God is going to get the glory [to allow them] to go and help others.”
Brittni advised Christians who might be worried about whether God still loves them and if He still wants to do mighty things through them in 2023, to remember that there is always hope in Jesus Christ. And she said the sins Christians committed in 2022 would not be held against them by God if they surrender their lives to Jesus.
“Maybe you're like, … ‘I'm more like you, Brittni. … Well, I've been sleeping around, and how is the Lord going to ‘work this together for good?’’ Trust me. If you surrender it to God, He will ‘work it together for good.’ Let Him break you free from that shame. Be His mouthpiece. Be a vessel,” Brittni said.
However, she admitted that her transformation and conversion to Christ didn't happen overnight. When she first became a Christian, she often struggled to believe that her life had any purpose because of her past sins.
She struggled with feelings of guilt, and she doubted God’s grace and His capability to forgive her.
“When I first became a Christian, I remember saying: ‘I feel like I've wasted seven years of my life in the porn industry addicted to drugs and mental illness.' None of those years were wasted because the moment that you surrender your life to God, all of your sins, your mistakes — no matter how long you were in that lifestyle — none of it was wasted because God will work it all together for good,” she said.
“If you love God, let me just encourage you that whatever it is that you may have gone through, whether you made some pretty awful mistakes in 2022 or you fell into some sort of habitual sin, … God is going to work all that together for good.”
In her own life, after she left the porn industry, God opened up doors of opportunity for her to help others who faced similar trials.
“If I can go and help people that want to stop watching porn, if I can go and help other industry workers get out of the industry, if they want to get out, then I feel like I am fulfilling my purpose. And I feel like the puzzle pieces of my life have come together so beautifully in that way,” Brittni added.
“Our spirit can praise God through the middle of our mess. And so, Romans 8:37 says, ‘we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.'"
Richard added that having a confident perspective is vital to move forward with positivity into the new year, even if a Christian struggled to overcome their habitual sins in 2022.
“If we start seeing our [past] year differently, I think it's going to bring more confidence into our 2023. It's just the way that we see things,” he said.
Nicole Alcindor is a reporter for The Christian Post. She can be reached at: nicole.alcindor@christianpost.com.
