Oh, bless our God, you peoples!
And make the voice of His praise to be heard,
Who keeps our soul among the living,
And does not allow our feet to be moved.
For You, O God, have tested us;
You have refined us as silver is refined.
You brought us into the net;
You laid affliction on our backs.
You have caused men to ride over our heads;
We went through fire and through water;
But You brought us out to rich fulfillment....
Come and hear, all you who fear God,
And I will declare what He has done for my soul.
I cried to Him with my mouth,
And He was extolled with my tongue.
If I regard iniquity in my heart,
The Lord will not hear.
But certainly God has heard me;
He has attended to the voice of my prayer.
Blessed be God,
Who has not turned away from my prayer,
Nor His mercy from me!
Now, I'm going to really go out on a limb here and get personal. Like my whole blog is not about me... I mean, it is personal. But what I mean is that I'm going to share deeply with you here, because maybe this can help someone who's hurting.
Have you ever felt like life was so very hard, that every day was so very painful, that you were being shaped and refined and molded in a fiery furnace? Maybe you didn't think about being shaped and refined, maybe you just felt like you were in Hell. Maybe you were even afraid that God would not keep your soul among the living, like something or someone could bring about your death at any moment. Maybe it wasn't real or rational, maybe it was, but you still feared it. And above all, you wanted the pain to stop, to feel full and whole and alive. When I was feeling like that some time back, God gave me the above promise to cling to for my very life, that He would surely bring me through the fire and water to a place of rich fulfillment.
If I had chosen to move away from Him at that time in my life, to choose the world's way to solve my problems, He would not have brought me to this place. But I chose to follow Him, to not take a step to the right or to the left without His peace and blessing reassuring me that it was right. After many, many years of abuse in my marriage, I knew God's peace to bring it to an end. (Understand, if you are being abused, or your children are, I do not encourage you to hang in there. I encourage you to get safe, and now. In my situation, I brought about a separation to get my children safe, although it took awhile for me to get strong enough to do so. You are worth so much more, no matter what lies you are being fed, and Jesus died so that you could live a full and rich life....get safe and do it! If you won't do it for you, remember that those children need you to get them safe. They count on you! And if you are afraid, go to my web site, get in touch with me, and I will be there for you!)
I want to close with this. God loves you so very much that He will speak to you through His Word, and He will give you His promises and His blessings in your situation, if you are living for Him. And if you are living for Him, He will bring you to a place of rich fulfillment like you have never known, and He will give you the peace, the sweet peace, that you so deeply yearn for. He has for me. Come and hear, all you who fear God, and I will declare what He has done for my soul.
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