On the eve of The New Year, I bore witness to the birth of hope. Aching with the hurting as one by one they came to prayerfully pour out their stories, seeking refuge in the arms Jesus, I wondered at the catalyst of my own transparent testimony. It has not been easy to stand before an audience at year’s end and open the curtains of a painful past. But the ministry born of openness has paved the way for God’s healing Spirit to move among us, birthing hope in hurting hearts.
For those of us who, like Job, have ever cried, “Where then is my hope? As for my hope, who can see it?” (Job 17:15) our answer lies in the heart of The One who sees it all. Even in the shadow of the shame of our pasts and the sorrow that lies just below the surface of so many smiles, there is a Father whose heart beats with our every unmet desire and who longs to give good gifts to His children.
May I invite you to just place your ear next to His heavenly heart tonight? To wrap your arms around him and LISTEN to the steady rhythm of love – a love for YOU that beat there before your birth and will continue to pulse through His being throughout eternity. If you’ve waffled or walked away in the past, may I invite you, at the beginning of 2014 to come home to Your Father’s arms? For it’s there where hope comes alive and there, where dreams are born. It is there in our Father’s arms where we learn to hold up our heads to begin to breathe again.
The brokenness of our human hearts must hurt Him so. I am only one daughter… so painfully far from His perfection, yet my own soul aches as I lay down my head tonight to process all the hurt I’ve heard over the past few days. If there is one thing I know. One thing. Which I KNOW to be true, it is this: God redeems. He redeems the things we thought were lost. He redeems the broken relationships. He redeems our guilty pasts. He redeems the heartache. He redeems the unanswered questions. He redeems. I cannot tell you how. I cannot tell you when. I can only tell you that I believe in a good and loving God who redeems those things we cannot seem to process. Will you choose, with me, to trust Him today? Just trust Him. He will do the rest. He will birth the hope that our hearts need for this year. I cannot imagine facing 364 more days without that hope, can you? Happy, happy New Year!
Image captured by Ami Novak, used with permission.