In this season, when we feel the weight of broken relationships, pain from past sin, and a deep longing for peace that transcends the commercialized plastic packaging full of empty promises and fleeting joy, this is not the moment to condemn our hearts for desperately wanting more.

One of the hardest things I’ve ever done is watch my friend make me soup.

Has someone’s kindness ever felt hard to receive or painful? You are loved, and you are not alone.

I have often thought that forgiveness should feel like freedom. It should feel good. A good Christian should be able to smile and bless and shake off the implications of sin like water off a duck’s back. 

But, sin is heavy and sticky. And, we have only to look to Jesus to see that the process of forgiveness is not simple. 

How often do we delight, childlike, in the freedom of God?

It’s astonishing to me that I can hold so much faith and confidence in my eternal hope alongside such debilitating grief and anguish in my body. But Jesus did this. He held this tension for us, and He holds it with us still. This is the epitome of faithfulness. Faithfulness embodied.

Faithfulness isn’t revealed in our moments of strength. Faithfulness is in the struggle.

We are always going to be led by our emotions. It’s how we choose to honor, respond and act on them that determines whether they will lead us toward holiness and freedom or into sin and slavery.

This isn’t a heartless race we run. What better way for Satan to stop the redemptive power of the gospel than to convince us that we are small and our stories do not matter? Have the courage to look back. Unleash the power of the love of God on your life story.

Surrender to love. Dare to trust God with your whole heart.