Ever feel as if you’re someone else’s throw-away? Especially someone you’ve held so dear? Did it leave you feeling devastated beyond comprehension? Yes? What should we do when we find ourselves so egregiously denounced and so readily dismissed?
Don’t give up! Don’t give in! You’ll feel like it! You might react irrationally! Okay, if you’re like me, you probably will over-react. Still, do not give up! Bow down! Humbly! Immediately and often, let us reveal our hearts to the Most High God, who is LOVE Personified. Cry out! Allow His LOVE to saturate and captivate the heart. Submit to Him for cleansing of personal thoughts, attitudes, and actions (Ps. 51). Cry out! Yield dread and agony to the One who knows us best and loves us most! Stand up! Shake yourself! Lift up your head (Ps 24)! Walk on! Cry out, “I’m still here!” Keep movin’ on. Bow down again! Immediately and often! Before the King of hearts.Reconciliation is the pure heart’s aspiration, but we are ineffectual to coerce others to desire our presence in their lives, no matter how much they should, or how much we wish they would. However, “since God is for us, who can be against us”(Rom 8:31)? His love will sustain us; His joy willstrengthen us (John 15)! “Love your enemies; pray for those who persecute you” (Matt 5:44) is a stipulation, not an option.
It will take time! We might experience stunned disbelief. We will most likely feel betrayed, rejected, abandoned, angry, and depressed. Take courage. “Be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes; for our struggle is not against flesh and blood”–even when it feels like it is (Eph 6: 10-12). Let us vehemently press into the presence of the Lord God Almighty, Who was and Who is and Who is to come, the Ancient of Days, the Everlasting King of kings and Lord of lords. Even if it feels otherwise, we will have the power to outlast the enemy, if we remain attached to Christ, the Messiah, and His cross. Humbly yield to His correction, conviction, and cleansing.
Surely our persecutors will be restored to us after all that, right? Not necessarily, but that’s not the point. God is after my heart and yours, to capture every fractured piece. The heart of the matter is the matter of the heart. We will survive, if we die to our own way. Not the safe way. Not the easy way. The only way. One day, we will be able to stand again and say what Joseph said to his backstabbing brothers, “You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good.” (Gen 50:20). I’m still here.
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