During the last few weeks, the epiphany of how God’s mercy and grace never stops became apparent once again when I was preparing for a Bible study. This was over 1 and 2 Kings, Trustworthy by Lysa Terkheurst. One of the scenes of the video is at the ruins of the temple. When I saw this, it was astonishing to see how all these Kings were allowed to rule the people even though they had guidelines to go by they still ALL fell short and failed themselves, the people and God. When you stop and think about this from another perspective. The whole issue behind demanding a human king was that the people rejected God’s way of ruling. They couldn’t pray, obey, and wait on His perfect timing and their jealousy of the other nations around them which were not “chosen” people or set apart as they were called to be they wanted to be like the other nations and by doing so they also rejected their unique “set a part” position as God’s people. Another wonderful tidbit is that the temples were never meant to be forever. God loves us all so much that although there are ruins, He died on the cross to be able to give us His Holy spirit to dwell within us. Thus, no need for temples and sacrifices. Well, all this certainly hit home to me because we as we all do life sometimes do our own thing instead of relying on God’s certain Will and purpose for our lives. I definitely always took matters into my own hands thus the multitudes of bad decisions and terrible relationships. So, when I reflected on the ruins, I see my past and all the messes I made not seeking His Will and purpose. But God, in His infinite love and mercy always brought forth something good out of those “terriblenesses”. For example, my first two marriages were not prayed for, nor did I ask for Godly wisdom, but He gave me my two best precious gifts ever, my children. My whole entire life is a pile of ruins, but He’s brought me through to this healing journey where my testimony hopefully encourages those they can and will be happy and that in Glorifying Him in this testimony everyone sees His abundance of love and mercy.
God truly turns out something good in our worst circumstances even when we don’t see it immediately. So, we have a choice to sit and reflect on the all the bad in our lives or see God’s wondrous mercies and goodness and have complete and utter joy that we survived our bad mistakes with specks of goodness even in the valleys. I choose the joy that through each rescue I was able to see His goodness and feel immensely blessed to be on this side of all those terrible times. Even more blessed to be free of the shame I held onto so that I can write here and hopefully encourage those still struggling with trauma or abuse. Healing can be difficult at times but so worth it and we all are worthy of living a happy and thriving life.
So, if you are one of those looking at the ruins of your life with disdain and regret you miss the mark of what God’s really done in your life. Look closer but remember that refining means that although we are tested and tried, our suffering and brokenness in our valleys make us grow spiritually and closer to Him than we’ve ever been, for me this makes it all worth it. There are many scriptures that speak of this refinement such as Isaiah 48:10 and Malachi 3:2 just to mention a few. The refining process is where the precious metal is taken through fire and the components of this metal will only separate through high temperatures. When the desired temperature is reached the components separate and the precious metal can be retrieved. Folks through our refinement and healing the precious parts of us, our testimonies, our stories can be seen and told for others to be encouraged and helped along their way. The precious metal that God is retrieving from us is the very best of us. The part of each of us that has walked through the fire and valley and came out refined and serving His purposes. I’m overwhelmed by His goodness in my messes, and I hope that you too can look back and see His goodness too.
I’m so very glad you are here with me on this healing journey. Blessings until the next time.