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Deliverance- God ALWAYS shows up




"Blessed be your glorious name, and may it be exalted above all blessing and praise. You alone are the Lord. You made the heavens, even the highest heavens, and all their starry host, the earth and all that is on it, the seas and all that is in them. You give life to everything, and the multitudes of heaven worship you." --Nehemiah 9:5-6

 Seasons of Darkness.  I've been there. Felt the great cold of joylessness. Days when I spend the whole day and night in bed---but yet was restless and tired. The ugly heat of a burning rage and anger both at the sin we have in this world and anger at myself for not healing quick enough--but yet feeling so numb and just pure nothingness. That was the scariest for me--I became an expert of numbing anything that came my way--no matter how significant or insignificant. I was certain--I was forever lost. 

 It pained me to go to church due to being overly angry and jealous when others lifted their hands in awe and wonder of His great name, worshiping a God that I felt like didn't protect me from the sin of this world. How could they be so happy? Had they never experienced any great loss? Had nothing ever been ripped away from them? Forever gone and lost? OH how I longed to take a long deep breath of His joy and truly fill my lungs with His love.

 I made excuses that God would never love me the same. I was waste---why would He come back for my lost spirit? What was so special about me? The sin of this world had caused me to spiral into a downward battle of new sin I had never imagined.

 Oh the many doors I slammed in God's face saying--"You don't understand my pain or where I have been"..."the old joy-filled and carefree me is no more", "there is no way you could understand the darkness I'm in and there is no turning back". 

 BUT YET, I had the Creator of the Universe who cares and loves me so much that he will continually pursue and deliver me. He wouldn't give up on me.  Because of His great mercy and love---there was still a very dim light that lived within my spirit that said, "I'm here with you", "Don't give up", "Cling to the hope and joy you once knew".

 The God that delivered the Israelites from Egypt is the SAME God who wanted so desperately to deliver me from my darkness. I just didn't have the self love to believe that SAME God would want to use up His love on me. I couldn't even fathom that God's love is a bottomless, never-ending, eternal love. He never "uses up" His love.

 _______________________________________________________________________

 The longest recorded prayer found in the Old Testament is in Nehemiah 9:1-35. I encourage you to take time to read this prayer. 

 Get out two different colored pens or highlighters and spend time underlining examples of:

 1) how the Israelites turned away from God
 2) God's deliverance 

 --Look back and make a list of all the ways the Israelites turned away from God. What were their actions? 

 --The Israelites turned away from God in many ways---over and over again. Are there any examples that you relate to? Which ones? 
--Look back on the verses that you indicated were examples of God's deliverance. Is there a specific word or phrase that gives you hope that you are worth being delivered? 

This prayer offered me a glimpse of how merciful our God is. Because of his great compassion and covenant of love, God continuously delivers us over and over and over again. No matter where you are---even in the darkest of dark corners---God wants to deliver you.

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Comments

  1. ConstanceNovember 16, 2017 at 2:02 PM

    Sara, thank you so much for these words--- and the grace-filled news of His presence- Always.

    ReplyDelete
  2. UnknownNovember 16, 2017 at 6:24 PM

    Sara, this is beautiful! God continues to use you to bring His light and hope to others, thank you for your reminders and transparency. Love you!!

    ReplyDelete

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Sara

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