Grace Pursues: Learning to Walk Again

“My son, do not make light of the Lord's discipline, and do not lose heart when He rebukes you, because the Lord disciplines everyone He accepts as a son...Therefore, strengthen your feeble arms and weak knees. Make level paths for your feet, so that the lame [thing] may not be disabled, but rather healed.” Hebrews 12:5-6, 12

Self-medicating leads to bondage and I'm coming down off the high, away from the drugs. As the days, weeks, and months go by, the numbness is going away and I'm truly mourning, truly feeling the depths of the pain of loss, making myself face myself, turning the music off in the car and really feeling, I'm not running from the fears of loneliness and emptiness. I'm not running from fear anymore. I've put down the drugs of self-destructive habits and I pray for God to grace me with strength enough to never pick them up again.

Would it be unbiblical to say that God scares the Hell outta His children at times to turn them back to Him? Whatever your opinions are on the matter, He has used some unorthodox methods of bringing this wayward child back home.

Pause there.

C'mon, isn't He just incredible? I mean really, think about what He's done in the face of what you've done; in the face of what's been done for you; in the face of circumstances and situations not being what you thought they would be.

“Your love, O Lord, reaches to the heavens, Your faithfulness to the skies.” Psalm 36:5

The Message paraphrases the often-recited passage from Lamentations 3:

“I'll never forget the trouble, the utter lostness, the taste of ashes, the poison I've swallowed. I remember it all – oh, how well I remember – the feeling of hitting bottom. But there's one other thing I remember, and remembering, I keep a grip on hope: God's loyal love couldn't have run out, His merciful love couldn't have dried up. They're created new every morning. How great Your faithfulness! I'm sticking with God, He's all I've got left.”

He's out for our healing, beloveds. Healing, I tell ya. And yes, He will leave His 99 safely pastured to find that one dumb stray sheep.

Thus, I'm inclined to say, “My God, my God, why have you not forsaken me?”

Who is this God we serve?

The God who will leave 99 to bring back one.

The God who runs to His prodigal.

The God who turns the place upside down looking for His lost coin.

Why?

Completely for His glory and our good.

Too good to be true? Sounds like it, but it's true. And this truth, man, it'll set you free.