He Sees. He Knows. He Has Experienced It.

I recently read this by Mary DeMuth (from her book, "EVERYTHING," that comes out TODAY):

"Everything that hurts us on earth has the potential, when we let God put His hands in the conflict, to bless the world. In short, we hurt, God heals, we become an agent of healing. In other words, when we're brave enough to let God transform our pain, we bring heaven to earth. And when He stretches His arm from heaven to earth, blessing us with comfort, we, in turn, touch the world with heaven's touch."

And then, this morning, I heard an interview on the radio with Mark Shultz. I don't remember his exact words, but Mark said something like this, "If God isn't moving the mountain, it's because He's giving you the strength to go over it."

And then I remembered seeing this:

"The quickest way to forget about your pain is to help someone who hurts more." ~Matthew Barnett

So many times we find ourselves in places we'd rather not be, in circumstances we would've never chosen for ourselves, and pain (physical, mental, emotional) we wish would just. please. go. away.

But what if our circumstances don't change and the pain does not go away?

What if we use our faith and we pray every day and we stand on scriptures and nothing changes?

Maybe something IS changing.

Maybe WE are changing on the inside.

Maybe we are being prepared to help someone who hurts more.

Maybe we are becoming an agent of healing.

Maybe we are healing from the inside out.

Maybe our faith is growing and our hearts are being softened.

I don't understand everything, but I know God never changes.

I know Jesus loves me so much He died on the cross so I can live.

So when I don't get I answers, I remember, God has my life in His hands.

He sees the big picture. He knows the number of my days. And His ways are perfect.

So I keep walking.

I keep celebrating.

I keep praying.

I give thanks.

I keep believing.

I share.

I keep praising.

I chose joy.

And I remind myself His love never gives up on me. He knows me better than anyone. And He promises that no matter what, NO MATTER WHAT, He will never leave me nor forsake me.

In that hard place? Yep. He's there.

When my pain is more than I can bear? Yes. He is there, too.

He sees, He knows, He has experienced it.

Keep pressing forward, sister. Keep going. Don't give up! Your story isn't finished yet, and neither is mine!

Please let me pray with you today. Let me keep standing and keep believing with you. Leave a comment below or feel free to send me a private message: shellyafaust@gmail.com

His love never fails!

Praise the Lord! He is good. God’s love never fails. Praise the God of all gods. God’s love never fails. Praise the Lord of lords. God’s love never fails. ~Psalms 136:1-3

Look to the Lord and His strength; seek His face always. ~Psalms 105:4

Because Thy lovingkindness is better than life, my lips shall praise Thee. ~Psalms 63:3

Do You Ever Forget?

Do you ever forget?

Forget to put the clothes in the dryer?

Forget that you were supposed to call _________  right back?

Forget that you were boiling something on the stove?

Forget what exactly it was that you were supposed to remember? :)

Do you ever forget what God has spoken to you?

I was reading through some of my earlier posts from this year (from our book study by Paula Rinehart) and couldn't believe how some of them were directly related to my latest posts! 

Totally spoke to my heart...  AGAIN.

We should remind ourselves not only what God has done for us, but also what He has spoken to us.  Make sure you're keeping a journal of some sort so that you can go back and re-read His words to you.

So if these two of my latest posts (Don't Get Dis-Appointed and Misplaced Hope) spoke to your heart, I think these may as well..........

Losing Heart

Pain: The Crossroads of the Heart

It's good to review....and be reminded.  God's Word is alive and continues to speak if we (I) will only listen!

I think I may be doing some reviewing and reminding of my own this weekend! 

But for now.....Got my Netflix in the mail....I'm watching a movie tonight!  Woohooo! :)

Have a blessed weekend, my friends!!

xoxo

Shelly

Chapter Five: Control

Releasing Our Sticky Fingers

"All of us want to hold on to the illusion that we are in control of our lives.....at least a little bit anyway..."

The title alone of this chapter immediately grabbed my attention. I know this is one of the (many) areas I struggle with. 

Hi, my name is Shelly.  I have control issues.

But seriously.....coming from a woman's perspective (cause that's where my expertise is, ya know...)....we all have ideas and dreams of how we think and hope our life is going to go, and we think we know how to make it happen. 

I have an idea of how I think my kids' lives should go.  How they should do things, how they should dress, what they should say, who they should marry.....you get the idea.  And I think its certainly okay to (and we should) have expectations and dreams for our children, but ultimately God is in control.  And we are not.

Our daughter is graduating next weekend and I know that things are going to be a little different. :)  Although she is still living at home, going to a community college, she is becoming an adult.  The hard part for me will be giving her the freedom to make choices and decisions.....even when they are not the ones I think she should make.  This is new for me.  How do you watch as your child makes a wrong choice and you know there will be consequences?  I know this is a part of the process, a part of life, character building, a part of who she will become and how God will use her.  Lord, help me to trust You with Your daughter.  Help me to release my sticky fingers.

And sometimes things just don't work out like we had planned.  Sometimes they do!  But sometimes they don't.....

Paula tells of her personal experience with skin cancer.  This really hit home for me.  5 1/2 years ago while pregnant with my baby boy, I received some similar, unexpected news - I had melanoma.  (Read that part of my story here) 

That was definitely not supposed to be part of my story. 

Or was it?

I believe that God will bring something good out of every bad situation or circumstance in our life.  He can't help it!  He's a good God.  Did He cause my cancer?  No.  Will He use my story for His glory and to draw people to Him?  Yes, I believe He will.

Today, I attended the funeral for my niece's twin boys who were born prematurely at 23 weeks.  My great nephews....Ayden and Evan.  Not how we imagined or hoped things would go.  Definitely not according to our plan.  Does God have a plan?  I just KNOW that He does.  As Starla said in one of her comments to a previous post of mine, I know that God is going to bring greatness out of this sadness.  Somehow.  Some way.

Paula quotes advice she received from a friend, "You have to realize that your dreams aren't going to materialize in the way you have hoped - even the ones you thought God gave you.  Some will turn out better than you could ever imagine.  Some will go belly up.  And hardly any will match the picture in your mind."

It's not always bad when our ideas or expectations don't materialize.  Not everyone will get cancer.  Not everyone will lose a child.  But we each have our own trials and tribulations....our own character building....our own story. 

And we each have our triumphs where God shows up and shows out.....and things are BETTER than we had hoped or imagined (even though they weren't part of our 10 year plan or vision board with accompanying pictures). 

When our oldest two children were 13 and 9, God decided we needed another one!  Not part of our plan....but definitely better than we expected or could have planned for ourselves! :)

God sees the big picture and He knows what He's doing.  Too often we ducktape our fingers around our circumstances and try to make things happen, fix things, or change things (because we know better). 

Rinehart exposes two faces of control:

• one looks anxious, overbearing, just plain trying too hard (ahhemm....you talking to ME?)
• the other is more a story of avoidance and self protection (again....)

Often our hurts and/or past experiences influence our future decisions, our plans, our goals and our dreams.....how we attempt to build our life.  If we can just do this, or avoid that, things will be fine and dandy.

Paula states that often the pain in our life "just sits there fermenting, expressing itself as control...."

"Most often, our need to stay in control springs from inner vows we do not know we have made:

• I will not hurt like that again.
• I will never be loved the way I long to be.
• I am really all I have.

She goes on to say that control "masquerades as strength, but it's really not........We try to get a life by arranging the pieces as best our limited vision and wounded, misbegotten hearts can do.  God may be a prop in the play, but He is not the director."

If I am going to trust God with my life, (and that of my children) I have to trust Him with every part of it.  The happy times and the sad times.  I have to trust that He already knows and that He has a plan. 

I have to trust that He is ever present, holding my hand, whispering softly the words that I need to hear, molding me, equipping me, making me, loving me.

Because He is.

Is there something in your life that has happened that wasn't exactly how you planned it?  How has it affected you and your relationship with God?  With other people? 

Are you allowing control to masquerade as strength and cover up the places that God wants to expose and heal?

Are you missing out on God's plans for your life because you have your own plans?

"No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him" 1 Corinthians 2:9

Ask God to help you peel off the ducktape.....release your sticky fingers.....and truly become the director of your life (and mine).  Pray for me, and I will pray for you. :)  I need all the help I can get.

XO

Shelly

Chapter Four: Losing Heart

Rinehart talks about how everything that makes life worth living - laughter, love, courage, sacrifice - is born in the inner depth of our heart. It is from where our passion comes. 


When we lose heart, we lose our passion.


We become strangers even to ourselves.

She quotes Frederick Buechner -


"....we run the risk of losing track of who we truly and fully are and little by little instead come to accept instead the highly edited version which we put forth in hope that the world will find it more acceptable than the real thing."

Our fear of rejection or fear of being hurt again or whatever fear lurks deep inside, becomes the driving force behind our loss of passion and causes us to hide our true selves.  Thinking we are "protecting" ourselves, we deny ourselves hope and pretend we have no expectations.  That way, we are not disappointed. 

A sad existence.  And definitely God's best for our life!

I love the analogy she uses on page 51-52 from Anne Lamott.  She compares having your tonsils out (a wound to the body) to pain and disappointments (wounds to the spirit).  In order for healing to take place, one must use the muscles around the wound in order to begin to get relief and start the healing process. 

Is pain real?  Yes.

Will we encounter disappointments?  Yes.

BUT!.... we continue living, hoping, expecting, knowing that God has good plans for us!

As David said in Psalms....

[What, what would have become of me] had I not believed that I would see the Lord's goodness in the land of the living!  (Ps. 27:13 Amplified)


Purpose to regain your passion!  Allow God to awaken those places in the secret chambers of your heart that have been hidden.  Allow Him to restore your hope. 

Rinehart states that "if we do not let ourselves hope in God, we will turn in another direction....depending on ourselves or putting our hope in other people."

"Hope that is pinned to God, rather than to people, has a buoyancy to it because it is grounded not in our own illusion of how our story should read, but in the character of God."

And two final quotes from this chapter that I couldn't leave out.....

"Only when the heart can hear, can we receive the experience of being loved, the joy of belonging to the Father,...and pain is often the megaphone that awakens."

"In the inner chambers of your heart, God steps past all your talent and hard work - all that you think He values.  He goes straight for the messy, broken places in you because it's there that you can truly discover Him."

I am praying for you today....that you (and I) will allow God into the messy, broken places.......that you allow yourself to hope again, to embrace life, and to LIVE.......that you will know, today, the joy of belonging to the Father, and in those broken places, you truly discover Him......

XO

Chapter Three: Pain

The Crossroads of the Heart

There were some technical difficulties over at The Bloom Book Club tonight, so the video won't be posted until tomorrow, but I thought I'd go ahead and post my thoughts.  Be sure to jump over there tomorrow to hear what Jessica and Angie have to say! 



This chapter is not really a fun one.  Not that any of them are FUN....but the last two talked about awakening! and desire!  That's exciting, don't ya think?  Well, this one.....talks about the reality of pain, and how that sometimes, no matter how hard we pray or how many positive things we speak, things don't always work out the way we planned. 

"The whole notion that some part of the pain of life is unavoidable is not an easy idea to confront.  Especially for Christians.  We tend to see our lives as a series of hurdles, which, if we trust God and jump high enough (oh my.....been there....), we can get through without scraping our knees.  If we miss a hurdle, though - or come through bloody and bruised - we must have done it wrong.  We have failed in some way.  Or worse, God has failed us."

Ever felt like that before?

I have.

But it's not true.

God never fails.  And He is not surprised by anything that happens in our life.  He already knew before it happened.

"It may take us a while to catch our breath, to ride the wave, and to trust that God has something in mind - something good - that we would never have dreamed."

Indeed, the Lord will comfort Zion,

He will comfort all her waste places.

And her wilderness He will make like Eden.

And her desert like the garden of the Lord.

Isaiah 51:3

We are not promised that things will always be perfect or that we'll never encounter a storm, but we are promised that we'll never have to go through it alone.

".....you start to realize that some sorrows in life will never go away.  You learn to carry them with you in ways that enrich rather than debilitate your life, in ways that make you wise.  But the dark and knubby places in the fabric, the tapestry of your life, remain."

"There are inevitable losses in life.  But there is one thing you do not have to lose - your heart."

We all experience pain.  It's where we go from there that matters.

"Pain...takes place on an invisible level, yet it has the potential to actually shape the real stuff of a person's future.  It can numb and destroy your passion in life, but it can refine and bless as well."

What will you do with your heart?

Will you allow (or have you allowed) the pain to destroy your passion for life?  Or will you choose to be refined?

God wants to make your wilderness like Eden and your desert like the garden of the Lord.

Trust that He has something in mind - something good - something you would have never dreamed.

XO

Shelly