Through His eyes

One of the things that I ask God for pretty regularly is to let me see things as if I were seeing them through His eyes. When He does, it is almost as if you can never look through the same lenses that you previously used because it is almost as if a shift occurs and your eyes have been opened. One of the things that burdens me is when people have seen something traumatic happen in their lives and it has distanced them from God. As someone who has seen God take the broken pieces of a life and make it beautiful again, times of struggle are never what we want but knowing that victory awaits on the other side because of who HE is enough to shout "Glory!" even when the world as seen through our own eyes can be terrifying; seeing through the lenses of a Savior can bring certainty during the unknown, peace through the tumult, even love amidst hate.

But what if you don't know? The concept of understanding that God is good and all who believe in Him is hard for someone to understand if they feel abandoned by Him, or if they believed God actually allowed that bad thing to happen to them. Or worst of all,believing God made that bad thing happen because of something bad they did. 

If this is something that you struggle with, let me be very clear here: God has not left you and the pain that you are feeling or have carried with you has not gone unnoticed by the Almighty. He is able to bring restoration to your story.

In the last week, God has sent divine appointments my way. I have always believed that God will meet you where you are, and sometimes that means sending people your way. I was able to speak with a sweet friend about her early diagnosis of cancer during childhood and how that experience has brought an appreciation to each day that she is healthy. She battled cancer in such a way that even now, over twenty years later, to recall the story brings tears to her father's eyes. Because the type of cancer that she was diagnosed with is more common in adults in their twenties, every time she is sick for an extended amount of time of senses something different with her body, she goes in for an MRI. Her smile is beautiful and contagious, and as she watches her little boy grow up, I can't imagine what joy it must bring her to be given the gift of another day to see what the next day will bring. 

Last night I sat down with a friend whom I have prayed for and that God would break the chains of  an alcohol addiction for her so that she could experience the life that Jesus has for her. The prayers that I spoke were manifested last night as she wept at my kitchen table and told me about an encounter she had with God in which He told her that Her chains were not too strong for Him to break. As we sat together tonight and opened up the Living Word of God, the addictions fully came to light as she pulled the (un-prescribed) pain pills from her purse and we claimed that ALL chains would be broken in the powerful name of Jesus. Please be in prayer for my friend as she is precious to me, but moreso to Christ. 

Beloved friends, feeling as though we have somehow been left behind or forgotten about by the Almighty Father who beautifully created us in His Image is lucifer's trademark move  and when we truly understand our own identity in Christ, we understand how we are a masterpiece that He didn't put together for our own glory, but for His. Realizing that your story, your life, has a purpose, is one of the greatest gifts that we can claim because it gives us the assurance that we are never alone but being sought out by the Shepherd that wants nothing more that to have an intimate relationship with us.

Father God, 

Thank you for divine appointments. I pray that you would simply keep them coming. I lift up my precious friends to you, as well as others that I didn't mention that find themselves struggling and wondering where you are. Reveal yourself in their lives as you have revealed yourself to me. 

I love you.