Episode 278

TODAY’S READING:

You restored me to health and let me live. Surely it was for my benefit that I suffered such anguish. In your love, you kept me from the pit of destruction; you have put all my sins behind your back.

Isaiah 38:16-17

 

Surely it was for my benefit that I suffered such anguish. The concept of suffering is hard for some. I know in my life, it has been hard for some of my family members to accept the cards they were handed.

 

I think we all, to a certain degree, don’t understand why we’ve had to walk through such valleys. Maybe you are walking through one now. Maybe you can’t understand why you are in the season God has you in.

 

Maybe you’re a victim of abuse, and you still wear the scars. Maybe you wear entirely different kinds of scars. I don’t know what you are holding, but I do know that we all have them. We don’t live perfect lives because we are far from it.

 

Pain is a hard pill to swallow. But in it all, God walks with us. The metaphoric and even physical scars we wear are reminders that God bore the pain for us. You didn’t walk, you aren’t walking, and you never have to walk in a season of grief and pain alone. He knows what we feel because He carried it for us long ago. He died for us. He took our sins, He took our destruction, and He carried the weight, so we don’t have to.

 

Sometimes we wear scars so that we can heal. I know that it sounds like an oxymoron – how can we have a scar and be whole? Wouldn’t we be whole and complete without a piece of us missing? In my opinion, the scars prove that this life isn’t perfect but that we need a perfect savior to run to. One that understands scars. One that understands pain.

 

So no matter where you find yourself. Single mom trying to navigate the waters, recently divorced, recently single, recently jobless, recently recovering from an addiction, battling an addiction, cancer is back, cancer isn’t going away, the school denied me, the business failed, dreams destroyed, where ever you are, you can put your head up and know that your Father is walking beside you. He doesn’t want you caring about the weight alone. 

 

PRAYER

Jesus, we thank you for bearing the weight. We thank you for carrying the scars. We thank you for walking with us at our lowest moments. We thank you for grieving with us. We thank you for healing our scars. We thank you for everything because even in pain, we know we have a perfect father to lean on. It is with absolutely everything in us that we pray, AMEN!