Reclaiming the Truth
“After he had spent everything, there was a severe famine in that whole country, and he began to be in need. So, he went and hired himself out to a citizen of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed pigs. He longed to fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating, but no one gave him anything. When he came to his senses, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have food to spare, and here I am starving to death!’” Luke 15.14-17
Redeeming the Time
Can you remember a time when you were in desperate need…I mean, really in need? So desperate that you were trying everything to get out of your situation or circumstances. Maybe like the younger son in the story, you were so hungry and thirsty for some kind of help that you would do anything.
It is at this point we usually find ourselves broken. Out of all solutions, fixes, and answers. All that is left is a desperate cry for help. I remember a story of a man who was on an airplane, and the turbulence got so bad everyone thought they were surely going to crash. The man grabs the hand of the woman sitting next to him and says, “Should we pray?” She responded, “Oh NO! Has it really come to that!?”
What do you do when you are in a desperate situation? What do you do when you find yourself hungry and thirsty for more than what this life has to offer? What do you do when you are in a place that feels very distant from the loving embrace of the Father?
God allows brokenness to happen in our lives for true redemption and healing to happen. It is in this place He turns our despair into praise! He does not delight in our desperation or brokenness but allows it so that we finally leave the tired methods of coping and hiding, or staying in our hurt so that we might feast on what He has prepared for us. Here, we will not hunger or thirst, rather we will be satisfied to the fullest and praise will be the cry of our hearts!
Reflection
- Describe a time when you were at your lowest.
- Where was God and what was your belief about God at that time?
- Looking back, how might you praise Him for his allowance of that time?
Resting in His Redemption
Rest and receive His truth in these verses of life.
“I will bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of joy instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair.” – Isaiah 63.3
“Taste and see that the Lord is good; blessed is the one who takes refuge in him.” – Psalm 34.8
“You, God, are my God, earnestly I seek you; I thirst for you, my whole being longs for you, in a dry and parched land where there is no water. I have seen you in the sanctuary and beheld your power and your glory. Because your love is better than life, my lips will glorify you. I will praise you as long as I live, and in your name, I will lift up my hands. I will be fully satisfied as with the richest of foods; with singing lips my mouth will praise you.” – Psalm 63.1-5
