Healing The Wounds

"I have loved you everlastingly, so I have kept for you my mercy. I will restore you again, and you shall be rebuilt." - Jeremiah 30:3-4

Around my junior year of college, I was on vacation in the Dominican Republic visiting my family. My parents were playing a video of my 5th birthday party and I seemed so happy. I actually remember some of it. The next day I was flying back to New York and my dad asked to speak to me privately before I left. He told me he was filled with sadness as he watched the video because he wasn't with me in any of the scenes. During that time my father wasn't a follower of Jesus and was more concerned with his own life and lifestyle than he was with his family. He told me he was sorry because he realized instantly that I grew up with an emptiness in my heart since he wasn't really there for me when I was little. I've had him always with me since he was called by Christ when I was about 11 years old, but until he said that to me that day, I never realized I had that pain and loneliness inside of me. As he spoke to me, so tenderly, asking for my forgiveness, I broke down in tears uncontrollably. It was like someone opened a faucet and my heart hurt so badly. I never knew I carried all of that so deeply inside since I was a little girl. We cried together and prayed together asking God to heal all those wounds, all the results of the sins people carry and pass on to someone else.

We all suffer from so many wounds. You have those you know about that are fresh, you have those older ones that have left scars, but you might even have those that you suffered so long ago that your mind has suppressed them. So many people even carry around the sorrows their mothers endured while they were in the womb and don't understand why they find themselves sad and lonely at times. This is why we need so much of Jesus, because He is the cure for all wounds, no matter the cause and no matter how deep. The Lord loves us and wants to see us healed. He has promised to not only heal, but to restore and rebuild us in His Word, and we need to seek that healing. And in His great mercy, He is even capable of taking us back to the beginning to undo those things that have scarred us so deeply. For King Hezekiah, God actually put back the hands of time to restore his life… so what can't your God, who loves you so much, do for you if you ask?

Today's Prayer:
My God, like a loving father, You pick us up when we're hurt and cure our wounds. I feel like a child in Your arms who is vulnerable and needs so much of You to make me better. Please see my pain and be my only joy and consolation. In Jesus' Name we pray, amen.

True Life

"I say to you, then, and with insistence I advise you in the Lord: do not imitate the pagans who live an aimless kind of life. Their understanding is in darkness and they remain in ignorance because of their blind conscience, very far from the life of God." - Ephesians 4:17-18

It pains me to say, but I see this aimless kind of life Saint Paul talks about all around me. I see people whose priorities are all screwed up. Is life just stacking up materials things to be in a better class range than others, or is it going out late, getting wasted and doing it all again the next day? It's none of these. That's an empty life, it's aimless and no life at all. Unfortunately, it's what we see on TV, magazines, and movies. It's the life of the people we admire, the lives of people we wish we had for just one day. But I guarantee that as fabulous as it seems and as fun as it seems, they are so empty inside. Are you feeling empty inside? What is the aim of your own life? What are you doing with the gift God gave you? People go around trying to fill their lives with things they think will make them happy, but only God, who is the author of life can give it meaning. The confusion you feel within you, that sense of being absolutely lost at times, the answer to that is not in the world. It's not in what you think you want or what you think will fill you and make you happy. Don't look for the answers among the rich and good looking people - they've just got it together on the outside. But true life, true meaning is only found in God. You were created by Him to have life in Him, and away from Him, you are nothing. You toil and trouble, trying to arrange your own world, but it's all in vain. You're still empty. You're still lonely and feel you have nothing or no one. Surrender yourself to God. Let Him fill you. Let Him show you what real life is, what real happiness is, what real peace is.

Today's Prayer:
Lord Jesus, You are the source of all goodness and kindness. Reinforce in my heart and in the hearts of all who read this that only You can fill us and give us true life in abundance. In Your Name we pray, amen.

In The Beginning

"In the beginning, when God began to create the heavens and the earth, the earth had no form and was void; darkness was over the deep and the Spirit of God hovered over the water." - Genesis 1:1-2

In the beginning stages of our relationship with God, we have no shape and the life we think we have is actually empty and dark. Things like friends, money, parties, clothes, drinks, fill us up temporarily but what do you have when the party is over and you're alone again? The thing about us all, whether we care to acknowledge it or not, is that we all need God in order to be fulfilled. Our souls were created by Him and only with Him can we ever feel completion and rest. When we go about without Him, the Spirit of God hovers around us. As far from God as we get, He will always put something or someone in our path to remind us that He is there. The passage says He hovers over the water. He hovers like an eagle who flies over her young; she doesn't get too close, she doesn't interfere, but she watches closely by and the second her baby is in danger, she's there to scoop it up as God is always there for you.

Let Him begin His work in you, form you and chase out the darkness with His light. Let Him fill you with life so that you will no longer be void, dark, and empty.

Today's Prayer:
My God, thank You for looking out for me, especially in those moments when I'm too busy to even remember who You are. I know You respect my will but right now I want to give You permission to always, always remind me, even in a harsh way, that You are all I need. In Your Name we pray, Amen.