Heartache to Hope

God has taken my life and transformed it from what it looked like a little over a year ago. Then, it was broken and crushed and hurting. My heart was bleeding, bruised, and torn. And now through the ashes of brokenness, God has mended my heart and crafted something beautiful. Something I could never imagine a year ago when the pain cut so deep and the hurt was just too real. I seriously never saw it coming until it happened, but through the pain of yesterday God has brought to me the peace in today and the hope in tomorrow.

I would willingly tell anyone who asks me about my life now that I am so extremely blessed and not just because God loves to bless His children no matter what, but because He especially loves to bless them when they follow Him in obedience. I am not here to blow my own horn or to sing my accolades, but to share something the Lord really taught me this year. It wasn't easy, but so freeing and the end result is so full of joy. Sometimes God allows us to go through heartache in order to get our focus back on Him and to use that heartache to point us to the hope that can only be found in Him.

It can't be found in a guy. It can't be found in friends. It can't be found in drugs or alcohol, fame, success, job security, social standing etc. True hope can only be found in one place. In the arms of Jesus Christ. "Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a longing fulfilled is a tree of life."-Proverbs 13:12 To defer means to put off something, to lay it aside until later. When we do not place our hope in Christ where it should be as Christians, we attempt to take our hope and put it in other people and things. This only causes us to become heart sick. I am not talking about heart failure or heart disease, even though it kind of is an illness.

 Hope placed in the wrong things makes us sick. The heart will start to feel heavy, weak, and burdened. We will search for anything to make us feel better, but if we don't run to Christ we will return empty and dry. But a longing fulfilled is a tree of life. When we long for Christ, when we seek Him and we follow Him, our hearts start feeling a lot lighter. The burdens are lifted, the chains are broken, and we are free. "Come to me", Jesus says, "to all who are weary and heavy laden" and He will give you rest.- Matthew 11:28. Rest for your souls and rest for your heart. The call is simple, but the task is difficult. We just have to take that first step in His direction and hope in Him alone. And yet that first step is always the hardest. 

This past year I have learned that when my hope gets off of Christ, He will sometimes let me experience heartache from the ones I place my hope in. This is so He can teach me that true hope comes from Him alone and placing my hope in mere men or worldly things is futile. And so the heartache comes and it hurts. Oh how it cuts my heart in two. But through the pain, the Lord was teaching me to lift my eyes up to Him once more and place my hope where it belongs; in the precious and loving arms of Christ.

When I started to place my hope in Christ again, the Holy Spirit started speaking to me about some tough decisions I needed to make with my walk in Christ. I walked away from some things I had gotten comfortable in and that people tried to advise me to not walk away from. But, once again, I had to remind myself that my hope is found in Christ and if He is calling me to move, I have to obey. To not obey will be detrimental. When I wrestle with Him, it brings heartache and pain. But when I surrender to His will, it brings hope and peace. From the ashes of heartache and pain, He has brought me to hope and peace. I will ever praise Him for this!

When we place our hope where it belongs, in Christ, and we obey His leading, He pours out blessings on us. God rewards obedience just like a good father rewards good behavior in his children. And God is our perfect Abba Father. God rewards obedience, but He chastises the disobedient. Just as every good parent knows, you can't let disobedience go unchecked or it will grow and grow into something far worse.  And so God allows certain things into our life when we are not placing our hope in Him and we are disobedient to His calling on our life in order to turn us back to Him, to be the children of God we were created to be. Full of peace and hope instead of pain and heartache.

Thanks be to the Lord who took my life from a year and a half ago and molded me into who I am today. He still is working on me and I pray I can always be faithful and obedient to His calling. He has blessed me far beyond what I could imagine and I am so filled with joy. He has brought a very godly man into my life with such a servant heart for Christ who points me to the Savior daily. I never thought I would be so blessed. God blesses His children, y'all, and He loves to reward those who follow Him no matter what. He has transformed my life from heartache to hope and even when trials come, may my hope ever be found in the loving arms of Christ. 

"My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness. I dare not trust the sweetest frame, but wholly trust in Jesus' name. On Christ the solid rock I stand, all other ground is sinking sand. All other ground is sinking sand."-  My Hope is Built on Nothing Less, Hymn