Unmuted

{Photo courtesy of Flickr}

I feel as though I am being purified by the flames lately. There is a scripture, when after I had read it one time, was plastered to my heart and mind. It says, “Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers them out of all of them!” Hallelujah! Seriously… Hallelujah! Sometimes I have this idea of what the Lord’s deliverance should look like, but when I throw down the box that I attempt to fit God into, I am able to just praise Him for this promises! I am able to rest in this amazing Truth despite my circumstances. Despite my pain, despite the possibility of surgery tomorrow, despite my fear, I am overwhelmed by the fact that God loves me! I’m overwhelmed that He would be concerned for me, that He would intervene in my life and my circumstances, and that He would deliver me out of all these afflictions! My God is good. I may not understand what or why I am going through this. I may not understand why I don’t seem to get healed every time I pray yet. I may not understand the timing of things or why I have to endure pain. But above all that… above all those things that try to torment and confuse me, I know that my God loves me. He loves me so much that He paid the greatest price to be able to share this love with me. He wanted me to know His love so bad that He sent Jesus to die for me. That just blows me away.

I find myself just sitting here on the couch listening to prophetic worship, longing to know more about my God who loves me so much. And my circumstances seem so small when I am in the Lord’s presence. Sometimes it is so hard to get to this place. Our emotions don’t want to do anything. They don’t want to praise God, they don’t want to sit in the presence of God, they don’t want to press into God, they don’t want to cry out for them. Sometimes our emotions are so grieved that they convince us that God couldn’t be in this situation or anywhere near us for that matter. But that is such a lie. God is here. God is here now. He is here in your circumstance. He is here in your pain. He sees the depth of your pain. He sees the secrets, the masks, and the turmoil inside of you. He isn’t intimidated by your struggles or your pain. Don’t you know that our God is greater than those things. His love is greater than those things. His love and blood covers all of it. We cannot out-do God by our mistakes. His love will always out-do us by delivering us and redeeming us. But will we give Him the chance to? Will be allow Him into those places of darkness and shame. Will be sit in His presence long enough to hear that we were wrong… that this God of love is not going to say how disappointed He is in us or cast us away… but wrap His arms around us and celebrate our return. Oh His love for us is so big. It is so great! Wont you just run to His arms? Wont you allow Him to love you and bring peace and comfort today?

Don’t let waiting discourage you! Don’t let the things that you see around you or even the things you don’t see but have been begging God for, discourage you. He hears the desperate cries of our hearts. His thoughts and understanding and scope of our lives is so much bigger than ours. He knows… He knows… His Word says, “For I KNOW the plans I have for you…” We may not know all of those plans or we may have invested into plans that weren’t ours, but do not be discouraged! Do not give up! Stand up! Rise up on the inside! For God knows the plans He has for you and there is no plan B for your life. The Lord and His plans and His purposes are worth waiting for. The Word says, “Though the vision may terry, it will come to pass…” Though the vision, the plans, though our deepest longings and desires may terry, though they may take longer than we want or think we can handle, do not be discouraged for at their appointed time, they will happen. As children of God we must stand on our Fathers goodness and love. He knows us! He sees us! He hears us! His love for us is so great! He has come so that we might know and experience this love in abundance! But will we not see it? Will we miss it because it isn’t how we expected it to look or feel like? We cannot miss this love that is so great. We must let it consume us from the inside out. Surely it will never fail us…. Surely it will never fail us.