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Thoughts for a Woman's Heart |
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encouragement in things that matter |
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In Our Captivity ... God
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In this world, suffering exists. We have illness, divorce, addiction and so much more ~ we find ourselves surrounded on every side. So how, as Christians, do we reconcile the pain of living in this world with the promise that "God is in control"?
A popular verse used to minister to the hurting is found in the book of Jeremiah ...."I know what I am doing. I have it all planned out - plans to take care of you, not abandon you, plans to give you a future and a hope." (Jer. 29:11, The Message) Sometimes the words, when our heart and mind are focused together on God, do help. Just knowing that God has "ME" in mind and that HE is in total control so that I don’t have to be ~ sometimes that is enough.
But there are other times, when we find ourselves struggling so much against the hardship we are facing, that it just doesn’t make sense. Any honest Christian will admit that there are days when we stand with our face turned towards the heavens, our heart broken and our voice raised, "Can’t You hear me? Why won’t You just fix this? Can’t You see the pain I am in? Don’t You care???" And there are times when the thought of NOT being in control ... even if our own control only brings more pain ... that thought keeps us from really embracing God’s influence in our lives.
If we continue to read before and after verse 11, we find that God makes this promise to His people in the middle of telling them that they WILL be in exile ... they WILL be "controlled" by the forces at work in their earthly lives. In the verse just before this promise, He tells them "when the seventy years are completed, I will come to you ...." In the verses after it, "....you will call on me and I will listen to you ... I will bring you back from captivity."
So, where does this bring us? I think that we (as Christians) struggle too much to find a way out of our captivity (pain, suffering, addiction) and we don’t spend enough time trying to find God in the captivity. God can take an ugly past and make it beautiful. How? Who better to reach out to a sister-in-Christ who is going through a divorce than a woman who has been down that road of being rejected and hurt, only to find that God was there in it all and that woman is now out on the other side? Who else can better pray for a fellow brother who is trapped in the bondage of addiction than one who has walked down that road, found God in their journey and is now clean? Who can relate better to someone dealing with the shame of molestation/rape ~ the person who has never felt even a hint of the secret humiliation or the one who can shudder with them as they finally allow God into their guarded souls?
God is in our captivity with us! His promise of being in control and His perfect plans for us are NOT promises for a cease-fire from the world’s pain ... it is simply His promise to be the life vest that keeps the bullets from killing the best that is within you! His promise to you is that He can and will use what is so painful ... Verse 13: "You will seek Me and find Me when you seek Me with all your heart." Seek Him in whatever struggle you face ... work to find Him IN your struggle with you. I promise you ... no matter where you find yourself at this very moment, He Is With You!
- Sabine
A note from Bev – Sabine Galvan is our guest writer. I am delighted to share her heart and her passion with you. Her words are backed up by her life. Thanks, Sabine.
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— Bev |
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