Redemption

Hey, Friends!
Redemption is such a beautiful word.  It denotes rescue; salvation from something that is far bigger than anything we can handle on our own.  We each need to be rescued: from ourselves, from our circumstances, from our selfish ambitions that get us stuck in the mindset that life is all about us.

Last fall was the hardest semester of my life.  For the first several months, my priorties were completely messed up.  I took my eyes off Jesus and tried to find my value and worth in a relationship I desperately wanted; in having my future career all mapped out; in the acceptance and approval of those I loved.  All of the above fell through.  The boy found someone else; I found out I didn't want to use the major I was studying for the rest of my life; I felt devauled , insignificant, irreplaceable, and easly forgotten by others. 

When I finally bottomed out, Jesus was patiently waiting to scoop me up.  I stumbled across Psalm 73 one day and it changed my life.  In the first part, Asaph is bemoaning his lot in life.  He is absolutely miserable; everyone around him is in tall cotton and it seems as though he is the only one who has been betrayed, the only one who has had his heart ripped out.  He knew God was good, but everything in his life contradicted that belief:

Surely God is good to Israel,
   to those who are pure in heart.
 ² But as for me, my feet had almost slipped;
   I had nearly lost my foothold.
³ For I envied the arrogant
   when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.
 ⁴ They have no struggles;
   their bodies are healthy and strong.
⁵ They are free from common human burdens;
   they are not plagued by human ills.
⁶ Therefore pride is their necklace;
   they clothe themselves with violence.
⁷ From their callous hearts comes iniquity;
   their evil imaginations have no limits.
⁸ They scoff, and speak with malice;
   with arrogance they threaten oppression.
⁹ Their mouths lay claim to heaven,
   and their tongues take possession of the earth.
¹⁰ Therefore their people turn to them
   and drink up waters in abundance.
¹¹ They say, “How would God know?
   Does the Most High know anything?”
 ¹² This is what the wicked are like—
   always free of care, they go on amassing wealth.

The cry of Asaph's heart was a heart-rending "Why?!"  He had done everything right; he had tried so hard to be the best he could be, to bring glory to his God by living a righteous life...and for what?

¹³ Surely in vain I have kept my heart pure
   and have washed my hands in innocence.
¹⁴ All day long I have been afflicted,
   and every morning brings new punishments.
 ¹⁵ If I had spoken out like that,
   I would have betrayed your children.

But at this point, when Asaph hit rock bottom, he finally had no one, nothing else to look at but Jesus.  Because he had been stripped of everything, his perspective was finally able to be centered on the only One who should have been that priority in the first place.

¹⁶ When I tried to understand all this,
   it troubled me deeply
¹⁷ till I entered the sanctuary of God;
   then I understood their final destiny.
 ¹⁸ Surely you place them on slippery ground;
   you cast them down to ruin.
¹⁹ How suddenly are they destroyed,
   completely swept away by terrors!
²⁰ They are like a dream when one awakes;
   when you arise, Lord,
   you will despise them as fantasies.

Asaph realized that God had stripped him away of all the destractions to save him; to redeem him by showing that He is the only One who could feel that void in his life.  In brokenness and joy, Asaph confesses and offers praise to God for his rescue.

 ²¹ When my heart was grieved
   and my spirit embittered,
²² I was senseless and ignorant;
   I was a brute beast before you.
 ²³ Yet I am always with you;
   you hold me by my right hand.
²⁴ You guide me with your counsel,
   and afterward you will take me into glory.
²⁵ Whom have I in heaven but you?
   And earth has nothing I desire besides you.
²⁶ My flesh and my heart may fail,
   but God is the strength of my heart
   and my portion forever.
 ²⁷ Those who are far from you will perish;
   you destroy all who are unfaithful to you.
²⁸ But as for me, it is good to be near God.
   I have made the Sovereign LORD my refuge;
   I will tell of all your deeds.

God is not trying to harm us.  He is a rewarder.  And something He has revealed to me over the past two months is that He is a rewarder even when we don't deserve it!  How beautiful is that?!  Your life right now may be miserable.  It may seem as though He is up in Heaven taunting you, maliciously thinking up yet another trial that will bring you even more hurt, even more pain.  Friends, there is no truth in that mindset whatsoever!  It is an outright LIE.  The truth is that your Father is crazy about you and wants to bless your socks off!  But He can't bless your life until He is the center of your life.  When He is, everything else - relationships, career, school, you name it - will fall into place exactly where it should be.

One of my dear friends, Brittany, shared this beautiful book expert with me today.  The passage perfectly sums up these thoughts.

"Why did God curse Eve with loneliness and heartache, an emptiness that nothing would be able to fill? Wasn't her life going to be hard enough out there in the world, banished from the Garden that was her true home, her only home, never able to return? It seems unkind. Cruel, even.

He did it to SAVE her. For as we all know personally, something in Eve's heart shifted at the Fall. Something sent its roots down deep into her soul-- and ours-- that mistrust of God's heart, that resolution to find life on our own terms. So God has to thwart her. In love, he has to block her attempts until, wounded and aching, she turns to him and him alone for her rescue.

Therefore I will block her bath with thornbushes;
I will wall her in so she cannot find her way.
She will chase after her lovers but not catch them;
she will look for them but not find them (Hos. 2:6-7)

Jesus has to thwart us too-- thwart our self- redemptive plans, our controlling and our hiding, thwart the ways we are seeking to fill the ache within us. Otherwise, we would never fully turn to him for our rescue. Oh, we might turn to him for our "salvation", for a ticket to heaven when we die. We might turn to him even in the form of Christian service, regular church attendance, a moral life. But inside, our hearts remain broken and captive and far from the One who can help us.

Wherever it is we have sought life apart from him, he disrupts our plans, our "way of life" which is not life at all."
He truly is a rewarder.  Everything He does to us, each joy or trial He sends our way, is done out of His unfathomable love.  He knows we can never experience true joy or life until He is at the center, and so He relentlessly pursues each of His children to bring it about.

Until Wednesday!
Amber Noel