Life can be darn hard. Anyone else feeling that extra heaviness lately? Or perhaps you can recall a time not too long ago, where your personal situation had you walking through a season of just plain hard times. I think we all can relate to that, at one time or another.
The beautiful reality of receiving the love of God into our lives doesn’t escape us from the pain and suffering of this fallen world, but rather, as we walk through it all, God is faithful to bring us along a continual process of redemption.
Where He brings us from and delivers us to.
From death to life.
From darkness to light.
From slavery to freedom.
From wilderness wandering to promised land living.
From captive to deliverance of sin.
From dry caves to gushing waters.
From the cross to the resurrection.
I’m reminded that the journey of a Jesus follower often looks messy because of the broken world we live in. That salvation doesn’t give us a direct pass to full understanding but more of a slow course of surrender as we seek Him and His ways, journeying through a series of joys and heartaches. The ups and down of life…and through it all…He’s with us.
“Those who sow in tears shall reap with shouts of joy!
[She] who goes out weeping, bearing the seed for sowing,
Shall come home with shouts of joy, bringing [her] sheaves with [her].” – Psalm 126:5-6
Our pain isn’t wasted when we bring it to Jesus. In fact, our tears poured out before God are an offering to Him - that which He uses as seeds to bring forth a harvest in us. The harvest will be evident to us as we lean into Jesus, trusting Him to bring us from and deliver us to. When we don’t have the answers and when the life that we’re living doesn’t make sense, but we choose to trust Him anyway… despite it even. The path we journey with Him harvests joy through sorrow. This is the hope that we hold onto. Acts 3:19 tells us that as we surrender our lives to Him, He refreshes us with His presence. Aren’t you so thankful we don’t walk this journey alone?
I love that His grace doesn’t leave us how He found us. I love that His grace doesn’t forget us when we’ve chosen a path that’s outside of His best for us. I love that His grace walks with us, guiding us through a continual process of redemption.
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