Dear Friends,
I find myself lately in one of “those” seasons. You know… when your heart is heavy over circumstances beyond your control… Maybe a relationship is failing; maybe your job is ending; maybe your child is not walking with the Lord…. And to be honest, it feels a little strange to be writing in order to encourage, while my own heart feels this grief so deeply.
Yet, deeper than the aching and louder than the shaking, this truth echoes in my heart: That when we do share, real, raw, and honest in the midst of all the messiness of life and relationships and hearts… the Father comes then and fills our hurting places… these chasms in our hearts… with His glory, His strength that’s perfected in our weakness… and His beauty pours forth out of pain.
And so… even with this heaviness of heart that feels so real and so acute lately, I want to share with you these things that I know… these truths that I hold onto, which are even MORE REAL than my earthly reality:
I know that though everything else is shaken, He is never moved. My Father is unchanging, not at all rocked by these storms. I know that He is my Anchor, my Strong Tower, my Shelter.
And when the wind and waves crash all around me, His whisper to my heart is, “Peace, child, be still. Trust Me now.”
So, I choose that. Today, I choose to respond to this invitation into peace and trust. I lift my eyes to Heaven, remembering this promise:
“You will keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on You, because he trusts in You.” (Is. 26:3-4, NKJV)
Perfect peace.
He extends this invitation to us all… to me, right now, in the middle of my ache and uncertainty, and to you, whatever your storm.
So, reaching out to take hold of perfect peace, I turn my heart and eyes toward my Father… crying out this prayer from my depths, like a river flowing out of these aching chasms, a fragrant offering rising to His heart: “Father! I believe that You are who You say You are…no matter what!”
Standing with the wind howling in my face and the waves crashing all around me, I scream it out over the storm: “Father, YOU ARE GOOD, and YOUR MERCY ENDURES FOREVER. You are GOOD, Father! You ARE!!
Your mercies are new today for me, and they sustain me through this moment…and the next…and the next.
I MAGNIFY YOU, exalt You OVER my circumstances. I fix my attention on You alone, and Your faithfulness fills my eyes until YOU are all I see.
I worship You, Lord… I place my hope in You… no matter what. I trust You, God. I trust Your heart toward me.”
And suddenly… the tangible, overwhelming reality of this verse floods my heart, and I’m undone again by His tender love:
The Lord is close to the brokenhearted, and saves those who are crushed in spirit. (Psalm 34:18 NIV)
And His invitation to us in the midst of all this shaking is to encounter Him deeply in the secret place….And in it all, what He’s after is our hearts, that we would be wholly surrendered to His love.
I’ve found that in seasons like these, the sweetest intimacy with Him is found in the shadow of His wings… And I wouldn’t trade it for the world.
Oh, my friends… May our hearts hear and respond to His invitations today, in the midst of our storms…whatever they look like.
Father, we hope in You, look to you, run into You, worship You… and we trust You to encounter us more deeply than we ever dreamed possible.
By: Dana Butler, Moments and Invitations
Photo Credit: Cathy Contant
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