Jeremiah 15:18-19 (NASB)
18 Why has my pain been perpetual
And my wound incurable, refusing to be healed?
Will You indeed be to me like a deceptive stream
With water that is unreliable?
19 Therefore, thus says the LORD,
“If you return, then I will restore you—
Before Me you will stand;
And if you extract the precious from the worthless,
You will become My spokesman.
As we talk about walking through dark times, I think this verse has so much to say. To extract something involves a little work. Convinced of His goodness and wisdom, we press in to the heart of God during dark times knowing that there are precious things to be extracted there. A great
Christian once said that we only advance through adversity. When you go through dark places ask the Lord to not change the situation until He has done all the things He wants to do in you. I’ve done that a number of times in my walk with Jesus. It was always a little scary because my flesh just wanted the pain to go away, but I always found that those days that He fed me and sustained me with the most precious words that proceeded from His mouth were the most transforming days of my life. That’s what He said about the Israelites when He led them through the wilderness. Deuteronomy 8 says that he taught them in the wilderness to live by the words that proceed from the mouth of God. He was preparing them for there place of purpose and destiny.
In those dark hours, I discovered so much about Him and myself. I realized again how much I need Him and how much He loves me. I learned about the lesser loves I had so grown to count on. His heart is so tender toward us when we seek Him with our broken hearts, and we come into a new place of being set apart for His affection and His Heavenly purposes. This fallen world becomes so distant and His beauty becomes so much of our reality.
We live in a fallen world and He will not spare us from all pain, but He will liberate us through our losses. Love is the great game changer. When you are lovesick you live liberated, caught up into transcendent affections that somehow set you apart from what’s going on around you. Gloriously, when we suffer loss we find Him tender and strong in ways that are transformational. We fall in love with Jesus again, but each time more profoundly as we discover we are created for Him and for His affections. As we grow in love sickness with Jesus, we too become set apart, otherworldly, for there is no love like being loved by Him and loving Him back.
Have a great day In Christ our Beloved.