We have to keep letting go, and slowly and surely the great full life of God will invade us in every part, and men will take knowledge of us that we have been with Jesus.
~Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest
Thus says the Lord of Hosts, the God of Israel, to all the exiles whom I have sent into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon: Build houses and live in them; plant gardens and eat their produce. Take wives and have sons and daughters; take wives for your sons, and give your daughters in marriage, that they may bear sons and daughters; multiply there, and do not decrease. But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare. For thus says the Lord of Hosts, the God of Israel: Do not let your prophets and your diviners who are among you deceive you, and do not listen to the dreams that they dream, for it is a lie that they are prophesying to you in My name; I did not send them, declares the Lord. For thus says the Lord: When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will visit you, and I will fulfill to you My promise and bring you back to this place. For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon Me and come and pray to Me, and I will hear you. You will seek Me and find Me, when you seek Me with all your heart. I will be found by you, declares the Lord, and I will restore your fortunes and gather you from all the nations and all the places where I have driven you, declares the Lord, and I will bring you back to the place from which I sent you into exile.
~ from Jeremiah 29
Oh beloved, it is true. There is one thing still wrong with us. We are still here. We are still strapped to the flesh that drives us. And while the incredible universes of our brains, and the inimitable bodies we have been given, are amazing beyond belief – we are to wed to the part of this body that is not redeemable.
There is more.
The world is crushing us, and itself, around us.
(Some) people really do hate us.
War and politics continue to fail us and kill us.
Disease tears us apart.
Our plans come to naught.
People abandon us.
Pain wears us down.
What rises up within us, is this intense fight or flight reaction. We feel this incredible need to attenuate the pain. We sense that if we do not do something about it (either escape it, or make it stop) that we are going to continue down a curve into a point of no return.
We could not be further from the truth. In fact, it is the exact opposite of what our flesh has been telling us. Our brains and flesh are telling us that things are never going to get better if we do not fix things. But the reality is that we are never going to get better if we try.
And this, really, is one of the most painful parts of becoming like Him. We have to come to this place where we absolutely, totally, and completely realize that we just cannot get it done. There is this enormous disappointment in ourselves… But, also, what comes over us is a blessed peace.
Him.
We begin to actually see some things…
The world can do its thing, and we do not need to follow its prompts.
That people hating us has nothing to do with us loving them.
That wars and politics are just wars and politics.
That disease only kills off the part of us that holds us back.
We are jubilant that our plans have fallen apart.
That we are, now, never alone.
And pain drives us into His arms.
Can we see it? All things really do work together for good when we fall in Love with Him. Even the really tough stuff in our lives comes into focus. We see that the things we thought were going to break us, actually did. They broke us free. They enabled a great letting go, that actually and finally gave us a real handle on things.
So, are you struggling with your life right now? Perhaps, no surely, it is time to let some things go. Tonight is your night beloved. Time to let it all go, that you might find – finally – a solid foundation in Him.
