Welcome to this week’s Grace Café. I am delighted to have Barbie Swihart from My Freshly Brewed Life provide this week’s post. If you haven’t visited Barbie, be sure to stop by her blog. I promise you will be blessed and encouraged.
A couple of years ago, my family went through a season of intense financial hardship, some of which we are still recovering from today. My husband, who is in the construction field, was laid off. We were already a little financially strained, but with the layoff we fell further behind and could not keep up with our mortgage. To make a long story short, we had to sell our home in order to avoid foreclosure. I remember praying and holding on to the hope that our house would be saved. But this wasn’t God’s plan.
I’ve heard the saying, “The Lord hasn’t brought you this far just to leave you” countless times. And although I knew the Lord was still with us, in the midst of this heartbreak, I often wondered why He would choose to bring us this far in blessing us with a home, only to have us lose it. I think I must have asked Him “why” a thousand times.
It’s been over two years now, and although we are still working hard to get back on our feet financially, I can honestly say that my faith has grown leaps and bounds through that season of hardship. One of the scripture passages that brought me through that season was Psalm 27:14:
“I am still confident of this: I will see the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living.”
What do you do when you are forced to give up a good thing? How do you let go of a blessing that you know was from the Lord when you are asked to lay it down? Often during that season I would shut down emotionally. The weight of packing up 16 years of memories in a house that we worked hard to make a home, and part of which my husband built with his own hands, was unbearable at times. I don’t think I felt the full effects of our loss until about a year later.
But I held tightly to His promise.
“Let us hold tightly without wavering to the hope we affirm, for God can be trusted to keep his promise.” (Hebrews 10:23)
And what is God’s promise? That He would show His goodness in the land of the living. That if I would put one foot in front of the other and trust Him, that He would prove Himself faithful. My husband was unemployed for over two years. It has been an intense season of lack as well learning how to trust. And God is still good and all of His ways are perfect. My husband was just rehired by the man who laid him off over two years ago for a 10-12 month project, and we have a lovely home that we are renting.
I look at that saying, “God hasn’t brought you this far just to leave you” in a whole new light today. It does not mean that nothing that is good in our lives will ever be taken from us. What it means is that God remains with us, through the good times and the bad. He will not leave us to walk the journey alone.
Are you walking through a hard season? Will you choose to live your life to the fullest, no matter what? I promise you that you will see the goodness of the Lord in your circumstances. Hold on to hope. It isn’t far behind you.
