Embracing Heartbreak

Some great thoughts by Jon Walker of Purpose-Driven Life--

There are some days when, frankly, I don’t feel much like worshiping God. There are probably more days like that than I’d care to admit.

But usually those are days are when I’m staring at my circumstances and making faithless judgments about what I see around me. I struggle with the truth that God is in the circumstances that surround my life – ALL the circumstances.

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Have you ever considered that heartbreak is part of God’s plans for you, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future”? (Jeremiah 29:11) We put so much energy into avoiding the hurt when God would have us embrace it.

God wants us to know that he can heal our hurts, even use our hurts for his benefit, and for us to believe that sometimes the circumstances we think are harming us are actually positive situations God is engineering.

God sees the breadth and depth of our circumstances, and he knows his plans for our lives. Avoiding the pain in our lives is actually an act of faithlessness. God calls us to have faith in him during difficult circumstances, but we’d rather place our faith in avoiding the circumstances.
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Jesus embraced the pain of God’s plan for his life, and he did it with full faith that God was still working the plan to bring a “hope and a future” to your life and mine. The Cross was Christ’s glory, not His penalty – and the same is true of difficult circumstances in our lives.

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When faced with a painful or difficult circumstance, ask God, “How do you want me to respond to this?”

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His answer to me lately has been "Focus on ME! Trust me!" Sometimes I do, and sometimes I don't. I don't know why God puts up with me...