In every season there is a purpose. a reason. If you're like me, you like the hard moments to have an explanation, a reason or a purpose for the pain and turmoil.
But not everything can be explained or reasoned out. Some things make NO sense. But there is a purpose and that purpose is - to learn of God and learn to know His heart. To catch a glimpse of His amazing grace. To find Him and to see Him in the small moments. To know His heartbeat and that heartbeat is LOVE. Love for you so much He stretched out His arms and died. He loves you with a passion. He wants a relationship with you and me. To be grateful.
And I'm realizing even the joy moments have a purpose beyond life going well for me. My 'success' or joy moments is to glorify Him. Others must see Jesus in those moments, as well. Don't forget the Lover of your soul in the midst of the 'not so desperate' moments.
There is a purpose for EVERYTHING.
But, my friends, (and to me) HE LOVES US! And nothing good or bad we do will change that. The reality of that gets tarnished or tainted and even destroyed in the midst of our physical and tangible relationships here on earth. The rejection. The words that cut deep into our hearts. Death. We learn what we've witnessed and experience. We take that knowledge and pin it on to the image of our Father, God. He wants to redeem those experiences. To change the pain to gain.
He sent JESUS.
Jesus came to show us something different.
He left perfection, so we could be perfect.
He left His Father, to show us the Father's heart.
He walked this earthen soil and felt the pain of rejection. The pain of betrayal, of people not getting Him or the words He spoke.
He knows what it's like to lose a friend. Lazarus. He felt grief.
He knows. He feels. He sees. He gets us in our hard things and painful moments.
He shows us how to love our enemies, do good to those who hate us, and even mistreat us.
He loved. loved the lovely and the unlovely. the one who hurt and the one who worshipped. The only way we can do the same is to be filled with Him. with His Spirit. to seek His face. to learn more of Him. to sit at His feet, just like Mary did.
He came to show us this way. The way of Life. The way to life. Because we learn by example and role models, He came to set us a different example. One that trumps the reality of our pain and hard things here on earth. A Greater Truth. But we must choose to believe those Truths. We need to dig. We must long for Him. We sometimes need to be still and LISTEN. Listen for God... And sometimes we need to persist... For the prayer of a person's heart that longs to know God for who He is and wants to find Him in the middle of messy and hard, will not be unanswered. It won't be instant and may require you to keep seeking and praying, but it will happen. He hears and I believe, it delights the very core of His heart when you want to know Him, personally.
It's messy, but beautiful! just like the bare tree. brown. vulnerable. bark flaking. But when the Son shines on the mess, IT'S GLORIOUS. IT'S BEAUTIFUL!
And it's something beyond my comprehension.. how His glory redeems my ugly. It's something that only God can do. for you. for me. but we must want it. He will not push. He draws. He draws our hearts with the pain and joys. the good and the bad. He draws us to teach us His Truth.
His purpose in each season is to REDEEM. To redeem the pain. To take ugly and create beauty. Eccl. 3:11 - He has made everything BEAUTIFUL in its time. He has also set eternity in their heart, yet so that man will not find out the work from the beginning to the end.
Autumn - He strips us of our leaves to remind us our identity is not in what we do, but Him.
Winter - When the harsh winds blow, He wants us to put our roots down in Him. To learn of Him, more.
Spring - The hope that sweeps in with the breath of new life. The moments we see are His grace. The 'air' is beginning to warm.
Summer - The season we feel productive and we see fruit. The fruit of our winter is visible. But the harvest is not for our credit, but God's.
And the cycle happens again and again... the cycle of redeeming our identity and reminding us who we are to be rooted in.
The work God does in our hearts is a process and the change that happens deep within, happens without us realizing the depth or extent of it; until we look back and see the steps we have walked along the way. Eternity is broad. It is long. It is forever. It has no beginning and it has no end. The work of God in our hearts has no destination here on earth. It is on-going, and not in a discouraging way; but in a redeeming way. We cannot handle redemption in one lump sum. We would be overwhelmed with the enormity of it all. It is step by step, process by process. Like the threads of a screw, it comes around again, only at at deeper level and every thread gets closer to the point, to the core.
To find Him or to walk the path of the messy, the broken; you must TRUST the heart of God. And to be able to trust, you must BELIEVE that His heart is GOOD towards you.
If you do not believe that or can't grasp it because of the pain deep in your soul, that's okay. A lot of us have been there, but it's a moment when you must CHOOSE to keep a hold of the hand of God, the hand that won't let you go and pray every day, every moment of disbelief - "God show me. I want to see You, but right now I can't. Help my unbelief." And He will. Sometime. You may need to wait. God is not in a hurry. He wants you. Do you want Him?
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