I have cried a lot over the last two months. Cried in hurt. I cried as I have watched God shut doors that I wanted to remain open. Cried with loneliness. I cried as I was asked to sacrifice to the Lord long-held dreams. I cried as I have experienced new meanings of pain. Cried as I was enveloped in the loving arms, that reminded of His everlasting love.
The last year has been a refining year, but over the last few months it intensified and at times my heart called for relief through tears.
One of my favorite scripture passages for an overwhelmed heart is:
“...when
my heart is overwhelmed: lead me to the rock that is higher than I.”
Psalm
61:1
There have been times when I have repeated that phrase to myself. What comfort and assurance!
Even in the pain of my Father's refining fire, I have found new meaning in His love. He has come so close. In my pain, He has put His arms around me and promised me peace. I have had a renewed vision of His love for me. I have seen my value to Christ. He lived 33 1/2 years perfectly and died a horrendous death on a cross for me! He would have gone through all that even if I was the only human creature alive that needed salvation! Even now, He is praying for me, cheering me on. Supporting me through the dark valleys, the challenges I face, and holding me through the tearful nights.
Life's valleys can be long and hard, but they are only seasons. Some seasons are longer than others, but they are all just seasons and on the other side of winter is always spring. New hope and new life.
Last week, I felt like I had reached the top of a mountain after a very long valley.
I was reading my Bible and although not looking for any particular passage, I ended up flipping open to Psalm 40. The first 3 verses struck me in a way I will never forget.
“I waited patiently for the Lord: and He inclined unto me, and heard my cry. He
brought me up also out of an horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my
feet upon a rock, and established my goings. And He hath put a new song in my
mouth, even praise unto our God: many shall see it, and fear, and shall trust
in the Lord.”
Psalm
40:1-3
He HEARD me!
He brought me UP!
He brought me OUT!
He SET me on my feet again!
He ESTABLISHED my path!
He gave me a new SONG!
This is ME!
As I was thinking over the verses again this morning, I thought about mire. A miry pit is what the princes of King Zedekiah put Jeremiah into, with the reason of not liking Jeremiah's message of the coming judgment; in the form of enslavement to the Babylonians (Jeremiah 38) Scripture says that Jeremiah sank in the mire. I see mire almost like quicksand, the more you struggle, the more you sink.
In the miry pits of life, I cry to the Lord and He hears me! He always hears me. He brings me up, out of the pit, and sets me on the path. I pictured the Pilgrim, pulled out of the mire, and set on the road, in clean, fresh robes, no sign of the past filth. He sets the Pilgrim on the road, shines a light on the next step, and sends him on his way with...
A new SONG.
He puts a new song in my mouth. A song of deliverance. A song of hope. A song that many shall hear and it shall turn their hearts to the King. They will hear it and fear and shall trust in the Lord.
It is a song of testimony.
Each one of us has been in miry pits and has been drawn out and established on the path. So, write your song. Your song matters. It is a testimony to God's goodness in your life. Don't hold back singing your song out of fear.
One of my new favorite things to do in one-on-one prison ministry is to ask them for a story of when God showed Himself strong in their life recently. What am I doing? I am asking to hear their song. I love it!
If you are in the pit right now, God hears you.
If you are reestablished on the path, write your song.
God heard me, He brought me up out the miry pit and established my path and gave me a new song.
To Him be the glory!
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