There’s a lesson to be learned when running with a discerning heart, weeping eyes, a hurting soul, and a pocket full of blessings that it took a while to dig down to reach.

When you’re in a mess, sometimes that mess seems so deep that your drowning being is grasping at straws to pull up the weight of a thousand mountains. You’re not getting anywhere other than deeper into the quicksand of bad attitudes, despairing arguments, and frustrating foot stomps that makes you feel like you are three years old again.

As you come out of the mess realizing that you weren’t digging down deep enough to see the blessing you were actually living in nor were you sitting long enough in the Lord’s presence and actually listening for direction, you want to pull out a few more hairs and punch the air a few more times just to spite yourself and those who heaped the hurt upon your head. You know you should be thanking the Lord but you are still running and accusing because the ache is just a nag that doesn’t seem to want to quite vanish as of yet.

Then your heart is reminded to hold still. Your mind is reminded to refocus. The weight of disappointment, depression, and the mix of all things negative seems to halt for a little while. The Lord steadies it all to remind me and all who stand in the valley that we are a blessed people no matter if we’re up on that mountaintop or down in the shadows. We are blessed because we are His.

Psalm 84:10-12

For a day in your courts is better than a thousand elsewhere. I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of wickedness. For the Lord God is a sun and shield; the Lord bestows favor and honor. No good thing does he withhold from those who walk uprightly. O Lord of hosts, blessed is the one who trusts in you!

We are a blessed people, Christians. We would do well to focus beyond our hurt and steward these blessings despite all the troubles thrown our way. Bitterness likes to seep through our veins and it’s hard to get past. The Lord knows our hearts and He hears our cries. He does not abandon us in these things, but He refines us by allowing us to learn and grow in the fire.

How do we pay these blessings forward when we are recovering from the grief spewed out by those we trusted? Pray. And when you are done praying, pray some more. We can’t stop being who we are in our recovery. A faithful and thankful Christian stands strong despite all that trails behind us that were meant to deplete our walk.

James 4: 13-18

The Prayer of Faith

Is anyone among you in trouble? Let them pray. Is anyone happy? Let them sing songs of praise. Is anyone among you sick? Let them call the elders of the church to pray over them and anoint them with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise them up. If they have sinned, they will be forgiven. Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.

Elijah was a human being, even as we are. He prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the land for three and a half years. Again he prayed, and the heavens gave rain, and the earth produced its crops.

You may not produce crops for the nations, but you will produce a testimony of truth and faith. Prayer pulls you closer to the great healer and gives you hope of restoration.

Friends, prayer and Scripture, and a little bit of good preaching have pulled me up and wiped the dirt out of my eyes. The tears no longer cloudy my eyes for if they fall, they are clear and are of joy, not of bitterness. There is still healing to be had, but the Lord keeps moving those mountains and shaking those valleys. I am ready to move on and to see what the faithfulness of the Lord has in store for our family next.

More from this short series found at this link.