So I know, sometimes we just need to fix the fence and repair the building. Sometimes we just need to do what we need to do and nail it. But really for our soul health and our own peace of mind, in our own broken-down mess of trouble, it’s just simple faith is the all-important element in the dark moments of life! Just downright and outright faith in our Lord can get us through the maze of confusion and chaos. No understanding necessary, no worry, no figuring, no planning, no plotting, no scheming and no control mechanism. No, none of that….. Just pure, simple faith and trust in God alone….is our strength and our sanity.
So do what you need to do to mend what you need to mend. Fix, repair, forgive, forget, move on, and move out, but for the scars and the pain and the unknowns, trust in our Maker will soothe the soul of the fearful.
It’s a perfect love story, isn’t it? The kind of love that reaches to where we are, and loves us lavishly in spite of ourselves. A love that accompanies an incomprehensible grace, that doesn’t leave us where it finds us. Oh how sweet it is, this Agape love; so kind, so compassionate, so unconditional, so amazing, so extensive, so inclusive, so across the board, so accepting and so embracing and beautiful one, we sit so unworthy and yet so worthy in the name of Jesus, because God loved us while we were yet sinners. It’s a heavenly and divine love story! For the believer, one of those kinds of stories with a happily-ever-after ending because of our hope of glory and life eternal! Its measure is vast and its value is priceless!
What a gift it is to us today! Open it for yourself and see.
So, in all you have to do on this last day of our Advent journey, through all the preparation, through all the hurt, or sadness or disappointment, He whispers, “I’ll love you through it and together we can do this!”
1 John 4:9 “This is how God’s love was revealed among us: God sent His one and only Son into the world so that we might live through Him”
Romans 5: 8 “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
Sometimes a whisper from Heaven to our souls is all we need to get us through. I love this verse and this promise from Isaiah don’t you?
“Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low: and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain:” Isaiah 40:4
Such a glorious word of the prophecy of our Saviour’s coming to earth. A glorious story ~ A story with far-reaching impact. A story that reaches farther than just a fable on this old earth because its truth reaches into the hearts of men to seek and to save the lost and to bring salvation into this wretched, sin-sick world of just bad and all gone wrong! To bring healing into hearts shattered with pain and hope into the broken and anguished stories of our lives. Oh, beautiful soul, how lovely it is to celebrate His unconditional love for us even in our darkest of the night’s moments. Our Savior’s divine and royal birth, whispers from the heavens to our souls and reminds us clearly,
“I came to help you through all the hard times and to uphold you through all the horrific moments that each one must bear over the course of a lifetime. I didn’t send the pain, but I came to ease it and carry the burden of it. Give it to me and let me bear it, for its weight is heavy, and its anguish is too great for one as beautiful as you.”
The glory of the Lord was revealed on that night, long ago when His light illuminated the dark, to announce His birth to shepherds who kept watch over their flocks by night. It still shines brightly in our night to day. Our nights of anguish, sadness, loneliness, fear, hurt, rejection, unfairness, brokenness, and pain. Its hope shines brightly to bring us peace through it all and to lead us through to level ground!
Do you know Him through your sorrow? Can He share your burden at this Christmas time? Can He give you Hope for even this? Can He grant you a peace that goes beyond all understanding, for such a time as this? That’s what He does! I love how He does it!
“Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low: and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain:” Isaiah 40:4 “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.”
And so here we are, you and I and we and us, almost at the close of our Advent journey, but not yet.
There’s still another precious gift that was ushered into the world that night so long ago. A gift that lives on for us, for you, right where you are today. Ahh, it’s a love so unconditional it can make us blush at the very thought of our underserving selves! It’s a love that doesn’t care where we’ve been or what we’ve done, or what we’ve been up to, because it’s a love that gives a second chance, a third and fourth chance. It’s a sweet, inconceivable, all-encompassing love from a Heavenly Father who, to us that night, became flesh, to dwell among us, to live as we did. A God so perfect, so holy, so forgiving, came down to love us with compassion. Yeah, beautiful soul, Love came down that night all the way from heaven to earth, from God’s heart to ours. That’s why we celebrate this joyous season.
Without His love our empty shells of life can’t even begin to understand the Hope He brings, the peace He gives or the joy He provides. So today, on this last lap of the advent journey, unwrap His love right there, right where you find yourself; smack dab in In the middle of debris, loneliness, chaos, rejection, loss, isolation, fear and pain and all the conundrum of all the hard places. It’s the greatest gift you’ll receive this season! As a matter of fact, it’s a gift for a lifetime, that will keep giving over and over and over again for the rest of your days on this earth. When God loves and when you know His love, you’ll want to share it generously with those who need it.
Zephaniah 3:17 “The LORD your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save; he will rejoice over you with gladness; he will quiet you by his love; he will exult over you with loud singing.”
Deuteronomy 7:9 “Know therefore that the LORD your God is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments, to a thousand generations.”
Hope and Healing In Hard Places 