lördag 29 augusti 2015

Dark seasons in life

We all go through dark seasons in life. It´s just how life is, and I can guarantee that I have had my share of dark moments the last few years. Sometimes the pain and hopelessness was overwhelming. But I encountered God in this pain, the God who became a man of sorrows for me and who have shared all my sufferings. He knows how it feels, and He comforted me and brought me out of, and is still bringing me out of my personal darkness. When I behold His stripes, the wounds of His love for me, I get healed, because His love is greater than my pain, when I encounter His compassion, I experience wave after wave of His healing love. He is truly wonderful and awesome beyond words!
Many times in these seasons of life we look at ourselves: if only I were... if only I could... why did I... why can´t I.
Or we look to other people: If they... If I was like him or her... how could they...
Or we look to the circumstances.
The list goes on.
Religion always wants to play with our minds to burden us down with guilt and condemnation.
Religion is cold and hard, always placing demands on us that is too heavy to carry for a broken heart.
That´s not how Jesus speaks. He wants us to lift our eyes and look to Him, trust Him and let Him minister to our hurts and pains. He always sets us free from our struggle with ourselves.
Life is like this, and of course I believe in a God and savior that does miracles and who wants to help us, but sometimes... it seems like He´s showing up to late. We don´t understand why all this is happening, and I can´t give you a good answer to the question why.
But I know one thing, that Jesus is trustworthy and He promised to never leave us, nor forsake us, meaning that He is with us always, and when He´s with us, even though it may feel like we´re walking through the valley of death, He´s still there leading us through our time of darkness.
We will come out on the other side.
I don´t believe He is the cause of our sufferings, but I know that life can be really tough sometimes.
Because we walk in a dark season, the pain and suffering tends to steal our focus, and we don´t see the blessings hidden in the darkness.
What kind of blessings is that?
Well, in tough times things happen in our hearts. We learn compassion with suffering people, our hearts are exposed and we learn what real trust in God is, because in these seasons, prayer becomes real, and the religious superficiality of faith is stripped away and we learn the way of humility and brokenness, which is good because God gives His grace to the humble!
We learn to appreciate our friends, understanding that we were not created to live independent of other people, we become grateful for the people God has placed in our life, and knowing that there is someone praying for us, when we don´t have the strength to pray ourselves can make all the difference.
When we loose our pride, our walls of protection, built by our fears and insecurity, comes down and we become real and authentic people because we no longer have the strength or need to look good in front of God and in front of people.
When that happens we finally allow God and people too see us and love us the way we really are, and that´s always where real relationships can start!
Through our hurts and wounds God will bring comfort and healing to the hurting people around us!
He makes all things work together for our good, and even the most dark moments in your life can be used by God as a source of encouragement and life to our world if we give them to him. That´s good news!
He is not the one causing dark seasons in our life, but He´s redeeming them, using them to change us into His image!
We will have times of darkness and sufferings sometimes, but Jesus is our healer and restorer. He is our best friend and together with Him we will always come out on the other end changed, we may limp like Jacob did (I surely do), but we have been changed by His grace, remember that Jacob was changed into Israel through a very dark time of his life, and then our places of suffering is turned into gates through which His love flows into this world.
No, God doesn´t promise us a life free from suffering, but He walks with us through the suffering, and in the dark night of the soul it all seems so meaningless sometimes, but when we look back and see how God has been with us through it all our hearts are filled with thanksgiving and praise. Why? Because God is with us, and He loves us through it all!
Don´t give up, God will strengthen you, deliver you and save you!
Dark seasons come and go, because our circumstances are temporal, but our God is an everlasting God that never changes, and He is on our side to help us and deliver us!
Remember: God is with you, He´s bringing you through and it´s going to be alright!


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