“The heart is deceitful above all things” is specified by Jeremiah 17:9; lots of us have found that statement to be the reality and reality in the best way of romance. The story for lots of us in following our hearts is that the result just isn’t a happily ever after but loneliness, heartbreak, and despair. With that being the case for thus many stories, where then can we discover our hope to go on, and may God really give us a second probability in love?
It is a standard phrase on journals and low mugs, and it’s a standard motion that we, as headstrong humans, take the metaphorical pen into our own hands to jot down our own story, to design our own lives as we see fit. No one sets out to jot down a tragedy in their very own life, and nobody desires to see things go amuck, but often the results of taking that pen into your personal hand is an unhappy ending. We live in a fallen world, and as such, sin and temptation can enter the scene, leading to an consequence we didn’t foresee or account for after we took said pen. That leads us to query, is the story over yet? Can God redeem even this?
When God Writes the Story
Psalm 37:4 is one other common coffee mug phrase, but one which holds real hope that may end up in dreams come true. The dreams that come true aren’t limited to what you may dream up or imagine but may be far greater, for they’re the dreams of the Dream Giver and Dream Maker. In Psalm 37:4, the Psalmist conveys to “delight yourself within the Lord and He will provide you with the desires of your heart,” which we must flesh out to properly understand and take into motion. When we delight ourselves within the Lord, we aren’t any longer limiting ourselves to the finite boundaries of our own understanding. We are surrendering over our hearts, minds, and wills to the one One we will truly trust: God. Delighting in God means finding our hope and salvation not within the things of this earth or what we may receive on the opposite side but slightly within the exuberant and incomparable joy that’s knowing our Creator intimately. It is then that we allow Him to shift and alter our hearts to desire that which He plants in our hearts to desire and wait in hopeful expectation that He will bring forward fruit from those seeds. When God writes the story, there may be also a peace that’s deeply inside that the wedding of His will and His best is one and the identical.
Redeeming What Was Lost
For lots of us, the concept of receiving God’s best after such a multitude looks as if a faraway concept that might never be a reality, but with God, all things are possible. Romans 8:28 inspires us with great hope in sharing, “And we all know that in all things God works for the great of those that love him, who[a] have been called in keeping with his purpose.”
God can work in all things, not only those we consider redeemable, worthy, or fixable. Even the worst acts we have now committed, even the messiest stories we have now held a task in, and even the ugliest stories may be redeemed and used when God enters the scene. Nothing is much enough beyond His reach to be used, nothing in any respect. This can be true of affection, but can you think that to be the case for you too?
Restoring What Was Lost
Recently once I was in church, I felt a mild whisper offer a verse to me to think about and ponder in my heart, Joel 2:25. Joel 2:25 offers, “I’ll repay you for the years the locusts have eaten.” I felt challenged to ask myself if I think that God can redeem, restore, and rebuild what has been eaten in my life. Although I have no idea your story, I can attest in my very own that there have been mistakes made, I actually have trusted the mistaken people, and I actually have had deeply precious things stolen from me over time. In that verse and in that musing inside my heart, I felt an invite to not let that which has been taken, misused, or destroyed be the ultimate word, but as an alternative to permit God into those tender and broken places inside my very own life and story. God desires to redeem all things, restore all things, and repay all losses in your life, even the things we consider everlasting losses.
Setting the Order Right
How can we then allow God to repair what has been so terribly broken or lost? We must begin with setting the order of things right by giving God back His proper place as first. God must be our old flame, for if He just isn’t first, He is last. If we place anything before God, be it a relationship, person, or desire, if it comes before God, it’s an idol. The thing about idolatry is once one thing comes between you and God, the list will go on and on, so God becomes last on the list. Before the rest, we must return to that heart’s cry of a return to Eden in a deeply intimate one-on-one relationship with God, where He is perpetually and at all times first. Once there, then in His way, in His timing, and by His hand, all other facets and pieces of life will likely be put into place because He is the author and story maker. You can even find that your joy not will depend on something you might lose, for you’ll never lose the Lord. He is the Rock Eternal, where you may place all hope and trust. Let God be first and see all that comes after being set into the right place.
Will you let God have the pen to jot down your happily ever after? When it involves human relationships, God knows what His best is for you and who you really want. If God can fashion Eve as a custom-fit rib and help mate for Adam, can He not do the identical for you? Even if you will have found yourself married before and divorced, even when you will have given away facets of yourself and even your personal name, imagine that God can restore and redeem, it just isn’t too far gone. Ask God to forgive you for the mistakes you made without Him and as an alternative offer you what He desires to provide you. Ask God who He considers His best for you, and boldly trust Him as He directs and guides you moving forward, even when it doesn’t all make sense and even when it takes a daring leap of religion. Your story isn’t too far gone, and it just isn’t over yet, but can you think that for yourself, are you able to forgive yourself, and may you permit God to jot down your ending? For with God, all things are possible, and with God happily ever after is already a truth because He is our happiest ever after of all.
Photo credit: ©Álvaro Serrano
