In my Recovery Bible I found a Bible Reading on Hope amidst Suffering. This post comes on the heals of the post before it. The promise God made to Job who lost everything but in the end God eventually restored everything he had lost, and then some. I am believing that for myself. My heart grieves what I have lost very deeply!!!!! I am crying much more freely in this area. Realizing what was taken from me. It hurts terribly.
There are times when we are so confused and overwhelmed by the pain in our life that we wish we could die. No matter what we do, we are powerless to change things for the better. The weight of the pain and sadness seems too heavy to bear. We can't see why our heart doesn't just break and allow death to free us.
Job felt that way. He'd lost everything, even though he had always done what was right. His ten children were dead. He had lost his business, his riches, and his health. And all this happened in a matter of days! He was left with a sharp-tongued wife and three friends who blamed him for his own misfortune. Job cried out, "If my misery could be weighed and my troubles be put on the scales, they would outweigh all the sands of the sea...Oh, that I might have my request, that God would grant my desire. I wish he would crush me. I wish he would reach out his hand and kill me...I don't have the strength to endure. I have nothing to live for. Do I have the strength of a stone? Is my body made of bronze? No, I am utterly helpless, without any chance of success." (Job 6:2-13)
Job didn't know that the end of his life would be even better than the beginning. God eventually restored everything Job had lost, and then some. "Then he died, an old man who had lived a long, full life." (Job 42:17) Even when we're pressed to the point of death, there is still hope that our life will change. Our recovery could be so complete that the final lines written about us might read: "At last he or she died, after living a long, full life." We must remember: Life can be good again!
The Life Recovery Bible, p. 643
JBR I'm believing along with you that God will restore what was taken away from you. Great bible teaching in this post. God Bless.
ReplyDeleteneeded this badly
ReplyDeleteJBR,
ReplyDeleteSometimes it's hard to see the sunlight ahead of us when the dark clouds are raining on us. You WILL overcome these trials because this is God's promise to you. Life may be difficult right now because you are learning a whole different way of relating to yourself and others but this will pay off in the end. We get so used to seeing ourselves in a certain way that it can be hard to throw this false view of ourselves away after living with it for so long. Grieving is good. It is an acknowledgement that you've suffered tremendous loss in your life and it's always better to grieve than to feel numb. I spent so many years feeling numb that emotions, as painful as they may be, are a relief compared to feeling numb and apathetic about life.
God bless you, my friend. I am praying for you.