Some days the pain goes way deep and the hurt is genuine and really hard and the heart hurts and the head hurts and the soul cries and the tears flow and the days are just so overwhelming.
In these anxious-filled, difficult moments, we have an Author writing our lives with pen in one nail-pierced hand and a divine paintbrush of grace-filled red in the other. His blood was shed for us and yeah, He paints our story beautifully now because of it. He’s our Saviour and He’s made a way for us to make it through this hard place! Only because of the cross, His death, and His life can we have hope and do this hard thing, defying us, and staring us in the face. So whatever it is He’s written and writing and hand-painted for your story, you gotta know He’s got this and His sustaining grace covers it for us.
So beautiful you with beautiful soul, At such a time as this, He is our Healer, our Protector, and our Provider through it all and all the way to the cross He proved it. Now, just hand those anxious thoughts, that fear, disappointment, and deep hurt over into the pierced hands of the Saviour; the one and only Author of our faith who paints our story so perfectly; so beautifully perfect for us at such a time as this! It’s ok then to just breathe and rest in His care and safekeeping and know the promise of Romans 8: 28 is Truth!
“And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.”
A short devotional from my book, “You Are Loved” #youareloved
So much happening in our world today with so much unrest, it seems as if our world is unraveling around us very quickly. As Advent season draws nearer our own worlds become full with much to do and as the days come and go, our panic buttons become on high alert.
So, here we are today, with busy minds on shopping, baking, and decorating, and yeah, our hearts go out to so many others in the midst of bombings, shootings, and catastrophe, and on it goes. Sometimes life just isn’t fair in the big scheme of things, and when we can’t do much to help we can hold them up in prayer, and be in prayer for the ones on the job day and night to restore destroyed lands and properties.
For those of us still blessed with a home, and the anticipation of a family gathering, Christmas always brings a busy time. It can bring so much to the table with our thoughts going in a million different directions and our hearts heavy for the losses of so many.
Yet in all that comes and goes, Christmas is still the same season of Hope and the same season of Joy, we just might have to search a little deeper into the heart and soul of us to remember to find a resurgence of the Hope that it brings.
So, today, with so much going on in our minds, we need to regroup and reset for this coming beautiful Advent season! Let’s reset for the season that rejoices in the birth of a divine, heavenly baby born into an earth world for a huge purpose! To deliver Hope to a world that unravels before our very eyes.
Advent? No matter what’s happening around us, it’s all about Him ~ The Christ Child, the Star of the season! His royalty, His divinity, His part man, part God side, who left the portals of Heaven to become flesh! Born to walk among us, feel the dusty earth beneath His feet, the hurt of rejection, the pain of sin, and the sting of death.
Take a time out to ponder His life as He lived it out in real-time, in real life, and for us. You and I and we and us. Yeah, forget the heaps of stuff on your plate and ponder Him, the Christ One. The divine baby, born in the stable to become the Christ Child, to become a man so human, yet so divine to walk among us! To become our Saviour and the Savior of the World. Oh, how beautiful He is to us not just at this season but all year, through the year!
Yet, perhaps our Advent season brings Him closer as our minds ponder Him more. So, let’s reset our thinking patterns, our mindsets, and our goals, and our purpose to focus on the Reason for our celebrations. Today just embrace His grace! Rest in Him! Rejoice in His mercy! Rejoice in His power to save one horrendous world that we find ourselves living in. Today! Rejoice in His unconditional love for the hurting and the fleeing! the lost and the ruined. The loved and the unlovely and the ones so desperately in need of Him and His tender touch!
Yeah, beautiful soul ~ Sit back and search your heart with “Time out” to reflect on His goodness at the beginning of a beautiful Advent season and remember where He brought you from and the golden threads He’s woven around you to bring you where you sit today.
So go ahead, get out your traditions packed in boxes and your fine, ornaments to grace the home with merry thoughts of Christmas and family and friends! Go for it! I love this time of year. Don’t you? Dig out the recipes for sweet treats and cookie exchange and bake up a storm because a fine celebration is about to begin! A celebration so rich and sweet with festivities that go so much deeper than decor and sweets and tinsel and lights and gifts! A celebration that goes beyond us and reaches to the King of Heaven who resides and lives in the life He’s given us ~ and still keeps giving and giving and giving!
Yeah, so before you begin the scurrying, “Reset” ~ grab a cup of tea, light a candle ~ you, yourself and you and reflect on the amazing season about, to begin with, the divine, Baby born in the manger ~ Our Saviour of the world!
“Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel.” Isaiah 7:14
So, friends, if we don’t know there’s more to life than this scary, questionable one in which we presently live, we’ll find ourselves running fearful, paranoid, and empty! Ah, but the Bible tells us that the Hope of Heaven in the soul of us will give us reason to keep on keeping on, running the race fervently, persevering to the finish line even in the hard places, the challenging places, and the desolate places.
Truth is, our eyes and hearts tuned in and turned on to the heavenly realm, for sure, give us reason to rise to the challenge of what’s ahead, although none of us really know what that is as rumor has it this way and that!
Friends, there truly is a sweet hope in this present, desolate place of earth’s shallow emptiness! Contrary to popular belief, there is a real reason to keep moving ahead, one faith step ahead of the other, as we look down the barrel of so much unrest and turmoil.
Truly, God is still on the throne, on the move, still in charge, and still working it all out, just as prophesied in His Living Word! Turns out, this present world is really nothing as it pales in comparison to what amazing things lie ahead for those who love Him. The amazing things in store for us are not of this world but of His heavenly world and the eternal home that awaits us when this old earth takes a tumble off the edge of what it is and becomes what it’s to become.
So Paul writes in 1 Corinthians, 1:18
“For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness, but unto us which are saved it is the power of God.”
He’s so right you know! The cross can seem like foolishness to those who don’t know it or believe it, but in these days friends, it is our only salvation for the unfolding prophecy that lies ahead. New strange developments are happening daily and taking the world down a path of clear destruction! A path that invites us to go along to stay safe, but we won’t succumb to its fear-mongering tactics, because if we know the Christ of the cross, we know the winner of the game. So, instead, we take heart, find hope, and get on board with the Victor of this challenging struggle!
He’s got this turmoil and chaos and as hard as it is on us, we can know He’s got both it and ‘His’ people in His healing hand of blessing! He’s sizing it up, working it out, and lining it up, for those who follow Him and when it’s all said and done, and being really honest here, who doesn’t want to be on the winning side? So, hey, you today, Grab the victory shirt and join the victory team! Let’s stay together as we watch the news unfold. It’s not frightening when Heaven is our goal! It just moves us that much closer!
1 Corinthians 1:18
“For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness, but unto us which are saved it is the power of God.”
2 Corinthians 6: 2
“For He says: “In an acceptable time I have heard you, And in the day of salvation I have helped you.” Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.”
Hope and Healing In Hard Places 