At times it is difficult to pin down a single topic or theme for a blog post. The desire to write is there and the impetus to tell of God and His glory remains constant and strong but the specific direction is unclear. So I’m just going to tell you what’s on my heart at this moment.
What I know is this: God is real. God is good. God is still working and changing lives.
I know God is real because of the way that He has touched me personally and changed me as well as the evidence I see of Him in other lives around me. I know God is good because, limited though I am, I see His handiwork and the evidence of His greatness every day. And I know God is still working and changing lives because of the testimony of other believers who are not afraid to show up and speak out about their love for Jesus.
Even though I know God and see Him working I am still in this world and just like everyone else, I have problems and obstacles in my life. My heart is broken and has been broken these last few weeks over the separation and estrangement of two people that I know and love very much. I see what they are going through and I hurt for both of them as does all of their family and friends. My prayer for them is, and has been since the beginning, that love would win and that healing and reconciliation take place.
The thing is, only God can do something like that. Only God can take the pile of ashes that we so often create with our best efforts and turn them and us into something beautiful and worthwhile. Apart from God we are broken and miserable but with God we are healed and we are changed.
What is the key to this healing and this great change? Faith and repentance. By faith we believe that God is the only one who can change us and when we throw everything we have and everything we are at His feet and cry out to God with our whole heart, then and only then, can He begin to make us new. He will absolutely turn a life around 180 degrees from ruin to righteousness and from destruction to deliverance.
Will God intervene in the situation that I have described between these two estranged loved ones? I believe that He desires to and I believe that He certainly is able. How it all comes to pass will depend on the hearts and wills of those involved. Sometimes we realize we are in trouble rather quickly and turn it over to the Lord and sometimes we run for many years before we realize that it is all in vain if God’s hand isn’t in it.
My prayer is that somewhere down the road, in God’s perfect timing, I will be able to look in to the eyes of these folks and see lives that have been changed by the power of the Holy Spirit. I look forward to that day.