Surprised By Love

He was talking about how easy it is to doubt Your goodness towards us. How sometimes we feel like Your promises are meant for others...finding it hard to believe they are meant for us too. We wander through life wanting nothing more than to be unconditionally loved...to be understood...to be cherished. I remember, thinking to myself  "I don't struggle with that anymore!"  I 'know' I am loved. I 'know' I am wanted."

If I had spoken my thoughts out loud to everyone present, no one would have been more surprised than me! Do you know how many years that simply wasn't the truth...not even close to the truth! I mean I was saved...I spent time everyday in the scriptures and prayer...memorizing key verses to combat all of the truths that I couldn't believe with my heart. The problem was I possessed them...but they didn't possess me.

How many tons of condemnation and rejection mixed with self-hatred did You have to move to get me to this new place? This wide open space, this place where I never doubt Your intention towards me. It took me 51 years to arrive. I would have perished along the way, had it not been for desperate desire to believe that which I didn't. To believe that You really knew me by name and You longed to be gracious to me and You arose to show me compassion.

Miracles happen everyday! I am one. No one could have further to travel than I did. No one could have to push past more rubble and more obstacles than I. The secret is His arms are longer than any road we may find ourselves on. His love reaches to every far away land. His heart is beckoning you home. He wants nothing more than for each of His children to truly know they are loved and how desperately they are wanted!

"He is wooing you from the jaws of distress to a spacious place free from restriction...." Job 36:16