Yesterday was another day life didn’t seem worth living. Hopeless. Why bother? What is the point? This process of recovery is so slow I will never get better so why try? Why not end it all right now? But I didn’t. I realized that is not the right option and God wants me to keep going despite how hard this is. Ever feel like that?
This morning, I was worried about the future, severely depressed and feeling detached from the world and from God. As I drove to therapy this morning doing my best to pray…God are you there? Do you care? Am I going to get through this? Please help me. I did not even feel like going to my session. What was the point? What progress were we making?
As I came to a stoplight I looked up and saw a sign next to a church and it flashed, “You are loved no matter what!” Oh how I needed to see and hear those words this morning! Do you need to hear them?
You are loved no matter what!
On this Thursday before Easter we can be assured the greatest price was paid for us. We may still struggle to comprehend God’s love because of all that’s happened to us, but we cannot deny that two thousand years ago Jesus chose to be tortured and nailed to a cross dying a horrible, painful death for you and me – every person. Out of His deep love for us.
That as lonely as many days feel during recovery God is walking right beside us each step of the way. Guiding and directing our paths. Providing for us. It is when we take our eyes off of Him that we become hopeless. When we try to do this on our own. We don’t have the strength to do this on our own, but God does.
Seeing those words this morning, “You are loved no matter what!” reminded me of God’s many promises to us.
“No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Romans 8:37-39
Nothing can separate us from God’s love!
Though we may plead for God to take away our pain, just like Paul did to Jesus, He reminds us, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” 2 Corinthians 12:9
And no matter what happens God promises, “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.” Hebrews 13:5
When I take in God’s promises it reminds me to have hope, and that no matter how I “feel” I am not alone.
Though as you read this we have technically already celebrated Easter, the truth and power of it lasts forever and we can celebrate it every day. So my prayer for you today is the same one Paul prayed for the Ephesians, that as we all travel on this difficult, and some days what seems like an impossible journey of recovery, that you would remember you are loved by the creator of the universe, the Almighty, all powerful God.
“And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.
Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.” Ephesians 3:17-21
© 2019 Susan M. Clabaugh. All Rights Reserved.
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