As we enter the
Christmas season, I am overwhelmed by God’s love for me. This past year God has shown His great love
for me in a multitude of ways. He
continues to show me my sin and all the habits that make that sin my default
behavior. He hasn’t condemned me, but
instead whispered encouragement and surrounded me with love and peace as He
shows me new ways to live in this world.
The biggest,
tangible blessing has been in the form of reconciliation and mended
relationships. For years I’ve prayed for
the relationship with my step-daughters to be all that God desired it to
be. This year, when all hope of a relationship
with them diminished, God showed me that my hope hadn’t been in Him, but
instead I put hope in me and my plans. Then
He showed me all that He was capable of.
It is
overwhelmingly gorgeous.
Every hope,
every tearful plea, every heartfelt desire for our relationship has been
given. I praise His holy name! For the first time, in our entire marriage,
it feels like we are a family. There is
unity, there is laughter, there is communication, there are hugs and kisses,
there are cuddles, and there is unconditional love.
So many
times I sit before Jesus, begging, pleading for this or that. So many times I ask without really believing
He can or will do it. Yet, time and time
again, He shows Himself to me despite my unbelief. I am so grateful that Jesus became a man and
understands our human weakness.
I was
reading in Mark, chapter 9. There is a
story of a father who brings his son to Jesus.
The father tells Jesus that his son is possessed by a spirit that doesn’t
allow the boy to speak and makes him convulse, foam at the mouth, and grind his
teeth. The spirit had tried to kill the boy
with fire and drowning. The disciples
couldn’t drive out the spirit. The
father asks Jesus if he can do anything.
Jesus tells the father this, in verses 23-24, “‘If you can’?” said Jesus. “Everything is possible for one who
believes.” Immediately the boy’s father
exclaimed, “I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!”
Whatever we face, whether it be grief, stress, relationship issues,
financial burdens, health crisis, despair, enter what you’re facing here,
Jesus is bigger than it. He is
absolutely able to do more than we can imagine.
I’ve seen it with my own eyes, time after time, this year. May He continue to help me overcome my
unbelief.
In every situation.
For all the days He blesses me with.
