After Victoria‘s previous post, we both felt like there was more to the story – more for her to share. Sometimes finding healing is just that way… there’s more to tell but we have to go the next step in the journey before we are ready to share it! I pray you will be as blessed as I was by reading this next chapter in Victoria‘s journey…
When I agreed to write a follow-up to the testimony I shared for Mandy’s series Journey of Healing, I wasn’t sure there was a Glorifying update to my story. My life fell apart, I got mad and asked God where He had been during it all, He led me to Isaiah 54:7-10 in answer to my loaded question, and He’s been picking up the pieces since. The. End.
I knew God had been working to heal me and grow me into the woman He had designed me to be, and I knew that process wouldn’t be complete this side of eternity. So I agreed to tell more of my story and I prayed the Lord would show me just what I should share.
I had left off with an open ending of sorts, because that’s just what our life with the Lord is like. Sometimes we’re so busy living the season we’re in that we can’t see a good reason to visit the one we just left. Often times, there’s too much pain in the past, or too much time gone by. Returning can’t mean reliving, there’s just no Life in that. What makes going back again worthwhile is seeing God reveal more of His love for you. More of His sovereignty and His might. More of His faithfulness and His providence.
The prior testimony painted a powerful picture of God’s amazing healing, one I stare at some days and just praise God I’m on my knees, broken before Him and not just broken like I had been before Him.
What connects that story to this new creation I am in Christ?
That’s the conversational prayer I’d been having with the Lord as I considered how to approach writing the next chapter. His answer came as I sat revisiting the rubble He had rescued me from years ago. As if to say, “You asked where I was, and I’m not done answering that question,” God began to reveal countless ways in which He had protected us all from destruction–my children, my husband, my friends, their families, and me too.
Our Father never allows us to experience pain that isn’t purposeful.
That’s the rest of every story when put in God’s hands. A lifetime of watching as the Lord shows us where He’s been in our lives and how He’s fought and won each of our battles once and for all, even when we were certain the fight had long been lost.
If you can’t see your way past your pain long enough to find God standing there, just ask Him to make Himself seen…and don’t expect a snappy answer!
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I am living proof of how the Lord can take a broken life and turn it into something beautiful. Although I am still very far from perfection, I am still a work of His art. My heart's prayer is that "Brokenness into Beauty" will be a source of inspiration and encouragement to all! There is hope, and there is healing on the horizon.
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Dear Victoria,
This past year has been my “journey” year – I was not able to put it quite into words until I read your post. I think it caught me by the heart as I realized that standing on “this” side of this last year, I too had to be broken for God to put me back together. His way. To break each and every little piece of me. To break the hold of all that was back “there” – in order to move forward and follow Him with my eyes closed.
This road that I have traveled has been a long one too; on some days all I could handle was a moment in time. But by lifting my eyes to Him even that moment was filled with grace and a peace that in the middle of such heartache is so hard to even describe.
I know that my road has just begun.
I am a child of God – through and through – and nothing about my life will be the same. And I thank God for that. Every day.
Thank you for your honesty. Sharing your journey. Your words.
Sari, your words are so beautiful, that can only mean you’ve experienced that same beauty I spoke of when I said God doesn’t allow any pain that isn’t purposeful. His faithfulness astounds! Even when…