Abiding Monday

The Spirit of God...has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted,

Announce freedom to all captives,

pardon all prisoners. 

Isaiah 61:1 (The Message)

God's loyal love couldn't have run out,

his merciful love couldn't have dried up.

They're created new every morning.

How great is your faithfulness!

Lamentations 3:22-23 (The Message)

Create in me a clean heart, O God, 

and renew a steadfast spirit within me.

Psalm 51:10 (NKJV) 

I  love Psalm 51: 7-15  in The Message so much I must post it here.

Soak me in your laundry and I'll come out clean, scrub me and I'll have a snow-white life.
Tune me in to foot-tapping songs, set these once-broken bones to dancing.
Don't look too close for blemishes, give me a clean bill of health.
God, make a fresh start in me, shape a Genesis week from the chaos of my life.
Don't throw me out with the trash, or fail to breath holiness in me.
Bring me back from gray exile, put a fresh wind in my sails!
Give me a job teaching rebels your ways so the lost can find their way home.
Commute my death sentence, God, my salvation God, and I'll sing anthems to
your life-giving ways.  Unbutton my lips, dear God; I'll let loose with your praise.



Brokenness


You are feeling brokenhearted and bound: entangled in webs of discouragement. Pick up the pieces of your broken heart - scattered all around you - and bring them to Me. Place them on the white linen cloth I provide, and wait in My healing Presence. Sit still in My holy Light while I cleanse you from binding webs of discouragement. Look into My Face and see the great Love I have for you. Because My Love is limitless, I never run out of compassion. When you feel on the brink of giving up, remind yourself of My great faithfulness: I never give up on you!


Though your disappointment is real, My Presence with you is even more real. Stay close to Me as I work on mending your broken heart. Of course, your repaired heart will not be exactly as it was before, but in some ways it will be much better. Your renewed heart - stripped of its cherished hopes - will have more space for Me.  (Jesus Lives, by Sarah Young)


One thing I must say here too, is that God did not create us to live in isolation. We are not meant to walk this journey alone.  He is in himself community.  God uses others to help heal. Others are his arms to reach out to hold those in need of it. Hands to help when needed. Feet to move when needed.

I have been in a place of despair before, of feeling utterly alone. But as long as the sun rises another day, there is HOPE...God's mercies are new every morning...they are!!!

It's easy for me to say this now...out of the darkness, out of the pit...not so much when you are in it..

Please don't give up, please don't give in to the darkness.

Reach out.

There is the other side of what you may be experiencing.  God can and will bring you through, not always over...sometimes we have to experience every inch of the heartache.

And as Sarah Young said, "your heart will not be exactly as it was before, but in some ways it will be much better..."

And as it leaves more space for God, it leaves life experiences that enable you to be the hands and feet of Jesus to others.

Grace and Peace