There’s hope.
It’s actually a “red flag” for me, for you, to stop and to ask our Heavenly Father – what is in my belief systems, my expectations that causes Your truth not to feel true to me?
It’s how I get through every day.
The truth is I am healed. The facts are I still deal with symptoms of FMS. God’s Word, His truth has the power to change those facts. The choice is mine whether I will agree with His truth or whether I agree/believe the facts are bigger, more powerful than God’s truth.
Making the choice to agree with God’s truth, even when it doesn’t feel real, is the reason I have unconditional hope.
The “facts” of my situation, or situations of those around me, do not dictate to me God’s love for me; my worth; my value; God’s purposes for me or God’s character. Did I get to this point overnight? As my Dad used to say … 3 guesses and the first two don’t count. 🙂
Do I still have days where it’s hard to turn away from [did you know that is what repent means?] the sensory overload around me? Definitely. But when I use my will to turn away from overwhelming facts and instead seek out God’s truth and focus instead on that, my hope switch gets flipped and the gateway opens for me to get my needs met according to My Heavenly Father’s riches in glory (Phil 4:19).
My Heavenly Father is in the business of exchanging:
- my broken heart for his healing
- my ashes for His beauty
- my mourning for His joy
- my spirit of heaviness for His garment of praise
- my captivity for His freedom
- my prison for His pardon
- my sickness for his healing
The catch – coming into agreement with His truth may mean I have to change. Did that make you squirm a little?
“Until the pain of staying the same
is greater than the pain of change,
you will not change.”
I lived that way for decades. Literally. Not so much any more. My heart has learned it is safe to ask my Heavenly Father what He would give me in exchange for fear, judgment, control, unforgiveness, rebellion and so many other soul-powered “defense” mechanisms that many times I use unknowingly until God highlights it with “Your truth doesn’t feel true to me God”. He does not judge me. He simply shows me my choice. And, it is my choice to hold on to whatever it is on which I’ve been relying to deal with and/or silence pain in my life or change by partaking in His wonderful exchange program.
The example of Daniel comes to mind. The facts were he was put into a lions den and a firey furnace by the earthly king that was trying to destroy him …. sound familiar of what Jesus told us to expect in this world (John 16:33). What do you think would have happened if Daniel had looked around him and decided “I’m toast … what You promised Lord just doesn’t feel true to me because of my circumstances”. Daniel would have become what he believed instead of an “oak of righteousness, the planting of the Lord” that people looked at Daniel and said only The LORD could do that (Dan 6:22, 26-27).
That’s what I want to be, an oak of righteousness – the planting of the Lord so that when people look at my life there is no other explanation except “only the LORD could do that”. You know what’s so amazing about that — it’s what my Heavenly Father wants for me and for you as well.
How do I know that?
“No eye has seen, no ear has heard
and no one’s heart has imagined
all the things that God has prepared
for those who love him.
1 Cor 2:9
I want me some of that!! Do you?
Hope Without Limits 