We all wake with a need on our heart. I'm not talking about that new purse or that dream car in the magazine you just can't seem to let go of. It's not that the dishes need washing or the yard that needs mowed. I'm not talking about having lunch prepared and being ready for the ladies gathering at church. I'm speaking of the need in your heart. You know what I mean.
It's waking up and needing to be reminded that your beautiful. It's wanting to feel arms wrapped around you and hearing, "I love you". It's a heart in search of forgiveness. Your hurting and you just don't know why and the world seems as though it's caving in around you. Your husband is a nervous wreck because he just got laid off once again and the year isn't even over. The allergy you thought your baby had isn't getting better and now there are more doctor's appointments and your terrified. Your grandpa has died recently and you just want to see his face one more time. You just want to say the words you never made time to say. Am I getting closer?
You want a heart like Christ, but the sin of this life just keeps invading and you can't seem to shake that need. Nothing is fixing your need. You want to be filled with a new peace, but there is an anger raging through you and your about to explode. The rush of life isn't getting easier and as time goes on you feel crushed by the weight that is upon your shoulders.
You take a look around and life just isn't what you dreamed it would be. Friends are dying of cancer, church doesn't even seem real anymore, the bills are not paid each month, and your marriage seems like it's moving closer to disaster than healing. You are feeling tired and weary and the part that hurts is the fact that you feel as though no one in this world really cares one way or the other. Any closer?
Night rolls in and you close your eyes, but sleep doesn't come. There is no rest between the nightmares of reality. Your almost dreaming that tomorrow doesn't come. The night feels longer and longer and you know when the sun rises your gonna get up and do it all over again.
Friend, if I can call you friend, nothing in this world is going to quench that thirst you have for peace. Why? This world is not our home. This is only part of our destination. Life isn't easy. Sometimes, it can be downright ugly. Your tired of waiting for healing to come. Your tired of the fight. Your ready to just give in. I have been there with you.
Salvation is here for you. It's real and there is nothing like it. I have searched this world for happiness and nothing in this world gives my heart and soul what it truly needs. Jesus Christ is the answer. He loves you. You are beauty to Him. You matter to Him. He is waiting to hear from you. He has been knocking. I'm sure you have heard Him. I ignored Him for quite awhile. Until I realized, Christ was my answer. I looked around and came to understand life just didn't make sense anymore. At least not without Him.
Did He make life perfect? No. But He filled me with His love and grace. He gave me His peace and filled me with His Holy Spirit to guide each step I take. Through Him I realized life is never going to be perfect until the other side of heaven arrives for us. But in this life we can prosper through Him. We can see with a new vision. We can love greater and forgive wider. There is nothing like His mercies.
I have been there when your husband loses his job, when you lose a parent, when your children are not walking with Christ, when your feeling lost and abandoned. I have waken to feeling as though I didn't want to travel this journey any longer. Life as a Christian is not perfection. We are a work in progress and it's through Christ that we realize what faith is. It isn't placing our faith in all we can see. It's trusting in what we cannot. It's surrendering all to Him and trusting Him with your life and all that surrounds you.
There will be dark days in our life, but with Christ, there is always Light. He always gives us a way out. He is forever there to meet us. He knows our need like no other. He has been there right along with you. He is waiting. Will you give Him your hand today? Will you reach out and give Him your heart?
In that one moment when you say, "Yes, Jesus", life will never be the same. Maybe you have said yes, and you have walked away. It's time to come back to Him. Don't wait for life to get better before you trust Him again. Trust Him now and watch what He can do through your life.
We can be mighty through His strength. We can stand tall knowing Christ is standing before us. We can forgive today, knowing He has forgiven us of yesterday. We can live in peace, knowing there is no fear in Christ. We can surround our life with the beauty of Christ. We don't have to change before going to Him. He does all the changing for us. In His perfect timing He brings all together for us to see and understand.
What you are going through today seems like the end is near. I know. I totally get it. I have been there on that journey that seems like it's traveling no where good. But there is a tomorrow. Trust the Lord with today and He will show you greater things to come.
His promises are real. They are true and I can tell you, I hang on to them daily. My life with Christ in the drivers is better than me being a backseat driver. He knows what's up ahead. He knows the u-turns I need to make. He knows the road before me. He is the One who created the map. Each step of the journey brings us to the next.
Friend, don't give up today. Don't allow Satan to steal away what God has meant for good. Open your eyes to a new life with Him. He will fill your greatest need today. He will never let you down and He will never leave you. He is that One friend who will forever remain at your side. He is that Cheerleader on the sidelines of life. You know it. You can hear Him. He's saying, "You can do it, My child. We can do it together!"
"Faith is the confidence that what we hope for will actually happen; it gives us assurance about things we cannot see." Hebrews 11:1
"My old self has been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. So I live in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me. I do not treat the grace of God as meaningless. For if keeping the law could make us right with God, then there was no need for Christ to die." Galatians 2:20-21
"Can anything ever separate us from Christ's love? Does it mean He no longer loves us if we have trouble or calamity, or are persecuted, or hungry, or destitute, or in danger, or threatened with death? As the Scriptures say, for your sake we are killed every day; we are being slaughtered like sheep. No, despite all these things, overwhelming victory is ours through Christ, who loved us." Romans 8:35-37
