Saturday, October 31, 2015

The Missing Begins

I think just about everyone of us has lost someone we love. There is an incredible emptiness that gets left behind when people leave our lives. We can carry that weight around with us a long, long time.

That "hole" that has been left in us can effect us mentally, spiritually and even physically. It's like a vacuum, sucking anything and everything it can into the void, trying to fill itself . . to make the emptiness go away. "The hole" is on a mission to get ride of itself and, in the process, in the effort to be filled, it can take in anything, even hurtful, vengeful things. We must be careful.

There are many different ways we humans cope with things that hurt us. Sometimes we retreat and seclude ourselves. We distance ourselves from others because we have been hurt by someone we love and we don't want to be hurt by someone like that again. So we refuse to love, fully, ever again.

Sometimes we lash out at others in anger and attack. Maybe we see something in someone else that reminds us of what we do not have ourselves. Our attack is actually an attack against ourselves for the hurt we are feeling in our own lives.

Sometimes we end up filling that hole with alcohol, drugs or sexual sin, again, to find something to numb the pain or to replace the emptiness in some way, all in hope that it will actually help. It never does.

So, how to we get rid of the hurt in our lives? How do we unload the pain and get past the darkness it brings into our lives? Is that even possible?

To some extent there will always be a void in our lives when we lose someone we love. We loved them after all, and now they're gone. It hurts! But there are some things we can do to help ourselves get over that loss.

May I ask you a question? Okay, how about three questions?

When you are alone . . . who do you think of? Who do you miss the most? Who comes into your mind when you are all by yourself?

Some might answer, "My father." or "My best friend." It might be a husband or a wife or an unborn child. Regardless of the answer you have in your head right now, the only answer that can truly heal you is Jesus. Was HE the person you thought of when you were alone last night? When you are in pain do you cry out to Jesus? He is the only answer that works and let me tell you why.

What Jesus does is not "fill the whole in your heart." What happens, when you place your faith in Jesus Christ, is this incredible healing. The hurt decreases over time with the steady dose of love He pours out on us. We receive so much love from God, through the people He places in our lives, we simply can't help but be healed.

Then, after the healing takes place, as His love continues to pour into our lives, with a Christ-filled hole no longer in our hearts, His loves pours out of us onto others. We begin to love others with the same love that Jesus showed us.

There is such incredible love in Christ. When we place our faith and trust in Him, and in Him alone, the pain lessens, the healing begins, the loneliness disappears, and we will actually begin to feel joy in our lives once again. What a gift.

Life doesn't become "perfect." It's not like we will never be hurt again. But when we experience a loss in our lives and we think of God first, we will find that God has given us the ability to cope somehow. There is a confidence in us that tells us, "We'll get through this." And that knowledge can be a life-saving, life-altering truth that will guide us through even the darkest of storms.

If you have not placed your faith and trust in Jesus yet, please do so today. You will find that it will be the best decision you have ever made.

"28 Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” - Matthew 11:28-30

Cry Out To Jesus - Third Day

This story is dedicated to Kate, Jenna and Barb . . . Michele, Travis, Bethany and Christian . . . and to the families of Kameron . . . and Austin. May the peace of Christ surround you all.

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