Christ Will Rescue You

Tuesday, August 1, 2023

Unfamiliar Pain

Many of us are struggling with sadness because we’ve been emotionally hurt so badly in the past. When it comes to relationships, we might feel as though we can’t catch a break. Nothing seems to go as we planned. Why does finding and keeping love seem to be so difficult? All we want to do is love someone in a way that is fulfilling and meaningful, and we want to receive that same quality of love back. It’s simple enough, but the truth is that not everyone knows how to love in a fulfilling and meaningful way. Many individuals are not interested in giving quality love, even when they receive it. When we end up choosing someone like this as a partner, we sometimes set ourselves up for heartbreak. That’s not easy medicine to take, but it can heal our hearts if we’re willing to listen to God’s direction and instruction.

We know what kind of over-the-counter medicine to take for a headache or a common cold, but gut-wrenching heartbreak is unfamiliar pain. It’s not like breaking a bone. It’s a wound we can’t touch and an ache that no pill can take away. This unfamiliar pain is probably the only kind that’s on repeat in the lives of so many people. The reason for this is because we continue to make the same choices and same mistakes when it comes to significant relationships.

After a heartbreak, some of us end up in a very lonely place, and we’re in a position where loneliness continues to persist. One of the major factors in our struggle with relationships and loneliness is our habit of making wrong choices and decisions. Take Lexie for example. Three years ago, she did everything but kidnap Devin and force him down the aisle to get him to marry her. He didn’t want to get married, but he was no match for Lexie’s persistence. Her last two long-term relationships had ended because of it, and she refused to accept any more rejection. Devin went along with the big extravagant wedding and honeymoon that Lexie had always wanted, but soon after, it was clear that the marriage wasn’t going to last.

Proverbs 2:6(ESV) tells us, “For the Lord gives wisdom; from his mouth come knowledge and understanding.” The wisdom to make good choices and decisions comes from God, from reading and studying His Word. Lexie wasn’t interested in God’s wisdom. She didn’t ask for it and wouldn’t follow it. She had a habit of jumping into relationships too soon, and often with the wrong person. She set unattainable expectations and was in denial about a lot of red flags that would have helped her avoid the heartbreak that inevitably came her way. Divorced for a year now, Lexie hasn’t changed. She hasn't dated anyone seriously, but if a willing vessel came along, she'd do things exactly as she has in the past.

Like Lexie, many of us have made choices that we initially thought were very good and it ended up being very bad. We led, not with wisdom, but with our hearts. We took a leap and did so because everyone says that this is what we should do. “Follow your heart…” they say. “Your heart will never steer you wrong...” we’re told. Jeremiah 17:9(ESV) tells us about the human heart and how fickle and deceptive it can be. It says, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?” There’s nothing more deceptive than the human heart, and that’s why we should never lean on our own understanding about things. We must lean on the Lord.

Life will reveal that making important decisions and choices by our hearts is not always a good idea. In fact, it’s rarely a good idea. Our hearts can lead us down a very dark path, and this is a piece of information we desperately need to have in our arsenals. We all have an idea of how we want to be loved, and some of us have unrealistic expectations about this. We’re in the wrong lane when it comes to the quality of love we receive and give. Those expectations must be adjusted before we can partner in a relationship wisely and from a place of strength.

Life is given by God to be lived out in faith, not fantasy. Romans 5:3-5(NLT) “3 We can rejoice, too, when we run into problems and trials, for we know that they help us develop endurance. 4 And endurance develops strength of character, and character strengthens our confident hope of salvation. 5 And this hope will not lead to disappointment. For we know how dearly God loves us, because he has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with his love.” Relationships that are built on fantasy will not last. They must be built on our faith in God, and this means we must demonstrate the endurance and strength of character that He requires.

Life is not a romance movie. It’s filled with ups and downs, and some of the downs can be devastating. Our precious Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, didn't keep this a secret. In John 16:33, he told us about the troubles that come with life on earth, but he also made it clear that we can have peace in our hearts because he overcame the world, and through him, we will to. Jesus Christ gives us peace, but the world will cause some trouble in our lives, and the way that we overcome that trouble is through our faith in him. 1John 5:4(NL) says, “For every child of God defeats this evil world, and we achieve this victory through our faith.”

Significant relationships can present some of our greatest challenges. If we add unrealistic or unattainable expectations to the mix, we're setting ourselves up for disaster. God doesn't want this for us. He wants us to learn to walk by the Spirit so that we can be wise and make wise relationship decisions.

Don’t make the unfamiliar pain of heartbreak a familiar but unwelcome guest. Don’t let it be on repeat in your life. James 1:5(NLT) says, “If you need wisdom, ask our generous God, and he will give it to you. He will not rebuke you for asking.” Let God’s wisdom lead you in your relationship choices, and that includes the choice about the person you are considering dating. Have faith that God will lead you in the right direction, and do not leap unless He tells you that it’s okay to do so. ■

English Standard Version (ESV)
The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.

Scripture quotations marked (NLT) are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.

Tuesday, July 25, 2023

Through Rivers of Difficulty, God is With You

Luke 12:6-7(NLT)
“6 What is the price of five sparrows--two copper coins? Yet God does not forget a single one of them. 7 And the very hairs on your head are all numbered. So don't be afraid; you are more valuable to God than a whole flock of sparrows.”

Pam and Jesse have been married for thirty-five years. They have three grown children and two grandchildren. While visiting her mother in Florida for a few days, she received a phone call that her husband had suddenly passed away of a heart attack. Not more than two months prior, they’d celebrated his sixtieth birthday. Pam initially froze from the shock of the news. She had just spoken with her husband that morning, and she just couldn’t process what had happened, but as the hours passed, something completely unexpected happened. Pam felt almost a sense of relief, like a weight had been lifted from her shoulders.

Jesse was a very intelligent and resourceful man. He was also proud, stubborn, unaffectionate, and always had to be right. An electrician by trade, he was masterful at repairing and building just about anything. He always wanted more out of life and resented his parents for not helping him go to college after high school to become an engineer. Throughout their marriage, he had taken the brunt of his disappointments and frustrations out on Pam. From the very beginning, he turned to alcohol to cope with stressful situations, but things got worse after the children were born. He was verbally and physically abusive, and his two sons grew up disliking their father because of it. Alcoholism and abuse had been the norm in their home, but for Jesse, marital counseling was out of the question, and so was divorce. Pam felt that she had spent the last thirty-five years holding her breath in the prison that Jesse had made for them all. When he died, she felt she was finally able to come up for air.

Ephesians 5:28-29(ESV) tells us, “In the same way husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church.” Jessie didn’t do a decent job of loving himself, so Pam really didn’t stand a chance. He couldn’t love Pam as the Word teaches in Ephesians 5:28-29, because he didn’t allow God’s Word and love to saturate his heart. He tried to mask his resentment and anger with alcohol, and after he turned 50, his body began to betray him with numerous health issues.

Pam said she blamed herself for not mustering up the courage to leave Jesse years ago, but she didn’t want her children to grow up without their father. She also didn’t think she could make it on her own. She was sometimes angry with God that things had turned out the way they did, but she hadn’t considered the reality that life is full of choices, and sometimes we repeatedly make the wrong ones. At fifty-seven, she’s beginning to understand that whether it’s when you’re twenty-five or fifty-five, life will push us all to confront how we see and value our own selves.

2Timothy 1:7(NLT) tells us, “For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love, and self-discipline.” This is what we have received as God’s children! Through the Holy Spirit, we have received power, love, and self-discipline or self-control. We are empowered to live with authority and dominion over our own lives, but many of us are not taught the truth of 2Timothy 1:7. We make mistakes because of our insecurities and self-doubt, and the enemy continually hurls situations and circumstances that keep us down and separated from the mind and heart required to exercise power, love, and self-discipline.

Jesus Christ tells us in Luke 12:6-7 that God knows the number of hairs on our heads. He knows everything there is to know about us, and He also knows what He has given us. Ephesians 1:3(NLT) demonstrates God’s overwhelming generosity towards us. It says, “All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ.” We are pressed down, shaken together, and packed to overflowing, and God tells us this in His Word. He wants us to know how richly He’s blessed us, and He leaves it totally to us to reach out and grab all that He’s provided.

God told His people in Isaiah 43:2(NLT), “When you go through deep waters, I will be with you.
When you go through rivers of difficulty, you will not drown. When you walk through the fire of oppression, you will not be burned up; the flames will not consume you.” He will do this and so much more for those who love and honor Him. Like many of us, it took Pam several years to recognize this. God had not let her down, because it is impossible for Him to disappoint us. He would not place us in a position where we have to wait until someone dies to experience His freedom. We can live in His peace and liberty this very moment if we will trust Him. He will bring us through the rivers of difficulty and not let us drown. We will witness this continually if we have faith in His strength, love, and power, and trust in all that He has given us in Christ.■

English Standard Version (ESV)
The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.

“Through Rivers of Difficulty, God is With You”, written by Kim for https://rescuefromdomesticviolence.blogspot.com© 2023. All rights reserved. All praise and honor to God through Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior.

Tuesday, July 18, 2023

There Is a Season for Everything

Ecclesiastes 3:1(NLT)
“For everything there is a season, a time for every activity under heaven.”

By God’s perfect and wondrous design, we know that just as there are seasons in weather, there are seasons in life. As expected, a new season will follow a passing season, and there is a continual rhythm to their coming and going. We all experience this world differently, with experiences and encounters as varied as the billions of individuals that inhabit this planet, but the one constant for all of us is that, like the seasons, life will change. Life is dynamic. It’s full of ups and downs, and of course, it’s full of surprises. Whether by choice or force, it will bring change front and center for our acceptance or rejection. We can be sure that if we reject it, that season will cycle back and do so with stronger winds and harsher storms, reminding us that it is better to greet change than to ignore it.

Frustration, disappointment, and a broken heart are just a few of the consequences that land in our laps because we’ve failed to recognize when it’s time to grow, change, and go higher. With our Great Big Wonderful God, there is never regression, but always progression and elevation. The past is something none of us can recapture. We can’t go back and relive one second of our pasts. By divine design, we can only move forward, and God reminds us of this in Isaiah 43:18-19(ESV) when He said, “18 Remember not the former things, nor consider the things of old. 19 Behold, I am doing a new thing;”

In every season, our Heavenly Father demonstrates His unfailing love towards us. He is not a boring God as some believe. He is amazing beyond the definition of the word, and He is very happy being His extraordinarily omnipotent, omniscient, magnificent, loving, and gloriously holy self. He is love, and His delight is to share with us all that He is! This is the main objective of any change that life brings our way; to see God greater and to love greater through Him. We may not see it that way now, but if we patiently endure in the Lord, we most certainly will change our view on this matter.

1Corinthians 13:13(ESV) says, “So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.” Again, God is love, and as His children, He wants us to increase in His love continually. We cannot increase and expand our lives through pain, shame, bitterness, or regret. As we study His Word and pray often, we will grow in Christ by taking on his nature, and we will be able to love others with real love, the kind of love that truly ministers to their hearts. Jesus Christ tells us in Mark 12:30-31 that the greatest commandment is to love God with all our hearts, minds, souls, and strength, and the second is to love our brothers and sisters in Christ as ourselves. There are no greater commandments that these, and they are all about God’s love.

Loving God, others, and ourselves greater through the example of Jesus Christ is always the reason for the different seasons of life. I recently heard about a couple that didn’t consider this truth. They have been married twenty-three years, but their relationship has been starved of real love for so long that now they see each other only as roommates. Counseling is out of the question they feel, and they both believe that this new season is one of moving on and living different lives, but is it?

The only guarantees in life are God, His Word, and His love. So, whatever it is you’re going through, don’t hold on to the hurt, pain, and frustration. Instead, seek God and grow in His love. Nothing remains the same, and most of us recognize that seasons are temporary. So, a crisis of any kind is never permanent, but here’s the thing; many of us will make permanent decisions that change the situation without realizing that the season was meant to change us. Changing our hearts was the target and we miss this.

Genesis 8:22(NLT) tells us, “As long as the earth remains, there will be planting and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night.” Seasons are going to change. Summer, fall, winter, and spring will come and go, and no matter our age, we will face these seasons. Be determined that you will not miss what God has for you, and be ready to learn the lessons life brings, because they are always about His love. Remember that our powerful Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ is your foundation. He’s our solid Rock, and with him, you will always have the courage and faith to greet each season with His love and light.■

“There Is a Season for Everything”, written by Kim for https://rescuefromdomesticviolence.blogspot.com© 2023. All rights reserved. All praise and honor to God through Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior.