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When something difficult happens, it’s easy to wonder, “Where are you, God?” And his answer is always the same: “I’m with you.” Sometimes he makes his presence known through the hands and feet of people in our lives. Sometimes he quietly whispers to our hearts. Sometimes he works through circumstances to let us know we’re not alone.
Why does God do this? The answer in the psalm above seems downright scandalous. David says, “He rescued me because he delighted in me” (Ps. 18:19). Yet when bad things happen in our lives, one of the first assumptions we often make is that God must be really upset with us.
The enemy would love to persuade you that God is against you. He would love for you to become convinced that you don’t have God’s support. He would love to make you believe that you’ve fallen beyond God’s ability to hold you up.
Will you pause for a moment and reject those lies? We live in a fallen, broken world, and we all face difficulties. That doesn’t mean we’re being punished. Jesus lived an absolutely perfect life, and yet he was still “a man of suffering and familiar with pain” (Isa. 53:3). None of us gets to go through life without hard times. That doesn’t say anything about you except this: you’re human.
God knows that as humans we’re weak and frail. He knows we need help. He wants to offer that to us. Yet it’s up to us to receive it. And if we think he’s mad at us, then that’s a lot harder to do.
Perhaps it’s time to shift your perspective to align with what’s really true.
God isn’t disappointed in you.
He wants to delight in you.
And he will give you the support you need.
XOXO
The excerpt above is from my new devotional, What Your Heart Needs for the Hard Days}. It was featured on (in)courage as a Recommended Read this week. Click over for your coupon code plus a giveaway of lots of (in)courage goodies for you.}
