“Then Jesus told him, ‘Because you have seen Me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.’”
Dear woman, despite that verse, you may not be feeling very blessed right now. You may be feeling raw and battered. But Jesus says you are blessed. Why? Because you believe in Him despite how you are feeling, despite the obstacles people and circumstances have placed in your way.
One day I was thinking about some of those obstacles my abuser had put in my way, the circumstances and lies that tried to keep me away from God. The abuse itself was a fairly big obstacle. It was so large, in fact, that some days it threatened to block out the sun. On top of this large obstacle of abuse, I had piled up lies I believed about God—that He wouldn’t take care of me, that His power was only for punishing people and not for helping them, that He probably didn’t even like me. Those were only three of the lies; I had a whole lot more!
On top of all of that, I had piled some of my own idols—people that I had looked to in my life to satisfy my heart and its vast needs in the way only God can satisfy. This was a very large pile! And in my mind’s eye, it did blot out the sun. But as I looked at all this mess, God showed me that in my life I had seen the outer glow or the corona of the sun, which can only be seen during a solar eclipse. I heard God say to my heart, “Dear one, in spite of the abuse, the lies, the circumstances, the pain, your anger, and the idols, you saw My glow and decided to believe in Me. You could not see very much of me, but you chose to believe in Me anyway. You are blessed! I am calling you blessed!”
I’d like to take the credit for this, but I can’t. It was God’s wooing and drawing power that enabled me to see Him, even as faintly as I had. As He spoke that word to my heart, I loved Him more because of His faithful work on my behalf, peeking out from behind the pile and giving me a chance.
Wheat have people erected in front of you that has dimmed your view of God? What have you added to the pile? Make a list of these things. Be as specific as you can. Then thank God that in spite of the enemy’s work against your soul, God’s work has been stronger through Jesus Christ our Lord—and you believed even though you didn’t see.
This a page from the book When God Roared. Each page will be published, one per day, on this website. We pray that God uses it mightily in your life to swaddle you in His love and heal your precious heart.