Romans 5:1-5

The verse for this week is actually a few verses that I have been working on for a couple weeks now.

Romans 5:1-5 ~ "Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we boast in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know

that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us."

This was put on my heart because I have been struggling with putting my hope in things that disappoint instead of putting my hope in God. This verse has been teaching me that no matter what I go through, I won't be ashamed if I put my hope in the glory of God. And because of this hope, I can get through whatever struggles I face. 

Battle wounds

As girls, we tend to classify scars as ugly reminders of whatever pain or blood we suffered through. The worst is when something really stupid happens and you end up with a scar. Like when you cut yourself shaving. Or like the time I was playing capture the flag.

I was running full force down a hill when someone came up behind me and tagged me. The force of the tag plus my momentum sent me out of control, arms flailing, down the rest of the hill. Things turned into slow motion as I tried to put on the breaks, noticing the people around me staring with sympathy, knowing this would probably make it to my top 10 most embarrassing moments.

Sure enough, my legs tangled together and I went down hands and knees first. And of course, I waited until the concrete was available as a landing site before I hit the ground. That was more than three years ago, and I still have scars on my knee and three different places on my hand.

I think that some people have the wrong idea when it comes to scars. Most of the scars I have are from playing sports and from surgeries. I consider those my battle wounds. I’m proud of them and would be disappointed if they had not scarred.

They are a reminder of what I went through. They are symbols that I am strong enough to overcome pain. I was talking about this with a friend the other day and realized the strong parallelism that can be drawn between physical scars and emotional scars or scars that come from the pain that life brings.

Just like physical scars, emotional scars can be looked at in different ways. I can look at my scars and think how ugly they are. I can think they are only a reminder of the hurt that I have gone through, and I can try to hide them. Plus, if touched a certain way they can still hurt. It is easy to get caught up in thinking that we have to appear perfect and untouched. That people will look at our scars and will either back away in disgust or give unwanted sympathy.

Thinking about our scars in this way only holds us back and makes it easier to make the same mistakes over and over again. This is the way I choose to look at my scars: They are a reminder of God’s faithfulness. Each scar was once an open wound that was painful and unpleasant and messy. But God healed the wound and left me with a reminder of what I went through.

My scars are a daily reminder that you cannot go through life without getting hurt at times, but God will always give you strength to get through, and he will always heal you. My scars are also a reminder to not repeat past mistakes. If my past mistakes just went away, and I never thought about them again, I would most likely make the same mistakes all over again. But because I have reminders, I think twice before going about something the same way.

This does not mean you should expose the world to your every scar, but it does mean you should not be ashamed. So how will you look at your scars? Will you try to cover them up, embarrassed because they show how human you are? Or will you thank God for them, realizing how he showed you his grace through each and every scar?

Snapshots of love

It’s so hard for us to fully understand the way God loves us. How can we ever understand the concept that, no matter what we do, God loves us? How can we even begin to comprehend the fact that God is jealous for us? 

I believe that God gives us examples in our daily lives that show us a snapshot of what his love is all about. These snapshots are all around us, and we sometimes forget what they look like. We become so used to them that we have to be hit over the head to start recognizing them again.

I was hit over the head this summer. God blessed me by giving me a beautiful picture of the way he helps us through our pain and suffering. 

After my first surgery, I experienced a few unexpected reactions. These complications caused me to be in so much pain that for the first few days, I could not sleep. Each night was a little different. Some nights, I would watch a few movies in bed, hoping I would eventually just fall asleep. Other nights, I would put on music to try to distract my mind from the pain. But one thing always remained constant during these restless nights: My mom was always right by my side. 

One night, I woke up late into the night and was in so much pain that I could not go back to sleep. My mom took my hand in hers and started speaking to me to distract me from the pain. I still had a few more hours to go before I could take more pain medication, so all she could do was sit there with me, holding my hand and talking to me. 

My mom didn’t take my pain away from me. She didn’t give me any medicine because it wasn’t time for that yet and would not have helped me in the long run. But she sat there with me and helped me through the pain. She spoke to me even when I didn’t respond. She told me I could squeeze her hand as hard as I wanted to and said she would stay next to me for as long as I needed her to.

Not until I was talking to a friend about this did I realize that God used my mom to paint a picture of his love for me. We all have different physical, mental and spiritual pain in our lives. Just because we are in pain does not mean that God is not with us. It’s just not time for our medication yet. We would not be able to respond to healing in the way that God intends if he healed us automatically every time. 

But that does not mean he doesn’t care. It does not mean that he is not speaking to us, coaching us through the pain and telling us that we can hold on to him as hard as we can and for as long as we need to.

The pain I felt this summer was not something that I enjoyed. But from that pain came a stronger relationship with my mom. She showed me what the love of Jesus looks like. All the pain we go through in life can teach us something. And if we so choose, we can gain a better relationship with Christ through the pain. We just have to listen to his voice and let him walk us through the pain. Because the pain will not last forever. But God’s faithfulness does last forever. 

2 Corinthians 4:16-18

"Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal."