An Embrace Of The Almighty Pt. 2

I shared my story a few days ago. A story about some of the recent struggles I've experienced with my faith, and of God's superiority to my troubles. If you haven't yet read my previous post, you can check it out here. Tonight, I want to share with you some of what that experience meant to me, and just exactly how it touched my heart and sent peace to my very core.

I've never encountered God so vividly in my life. I have had moments where I felt like God was tugging my heart in a certain direction, but I have never had God straight-out respond to a request of mine with the exact words I asked Him to speak to me. God is really good at surprises. Many times He will respond to us when we feel as though we are totally alone. He gives us those little moments that are just enough to supply us with the faith and strength to carry on and that remind us that He is there.

Here's some of what I learned through my "God experience."

God uses the broken. I can honestly say that you don't experience God this intimately until you have been through trouble and witnessed Him pull it all back together. When you have endured such a brokenness in your life, it's then that you have something real to rejoice about when God picks up the pieces and rearranges them into a carefully crafted masterpiece. It gives your life purpose. It sure gave purpose to mine. After my God encounter, I am bound and determined to help guide others to have the same experience. I can't imagine keeping this to myself. My heart bursts at the seams with joy when I think about the love He has for me. I am so incredibly thankful for all of my struggles in life. That's right, I said it. I'm glad. I would still be roaming around, blind to the true joy of Christ were it not for the troubles I've faced.

Even though God has so clearly revealed Himself to me, life still isn't rainbows and daisies. I still have days that are much harder than others. However, I think it's time that we stop pursuing God in search of perfection, but rather pursue Him in search of purpose. Our lives will never be perfect, but like speaker Louie Giglio said in a sermon I recently saw, "Trouble comes, stuff happens, life hurts, but Jesus is bigger than it all." That is so powerful. Isn't it all about God? Isn't He the one that shelters us from the much worse things that would be sure to haunt our lives were He not around?

I think we forget sometimes, at least I do, that God didn't have to save us. He chose to because of the love He has for us all. I've been listening to the song "You're Here" by Francesca Battistelli on repeat this past week. There is a line in that song that resonates so deeply within me. The line says "You could have left us on our own, but you're here." How incredible is that? God could have just left us to deal with the consequences that we deserve for our wicked actions, but He loved us so much that He sent a savior to guide us home. John 3:16

He gave us hope. Without that, what would we be? I would be a shaken mess. My heart would never find rest, and my life would never find purpose. But God changed all of that. He gave my soul peace, and He placed unconquerable love in this fragile clay heart.