When Life Doesn’t Match Your Dreams By Jill Eileen SmithSample

Day 5

I Can’t Reverse that Harm

Genesis 34

Life can change in an instant, can’t it? When we least expect it, we can be faced with the most trying of circumstances, and our lives are never the same. Those moments not only can destroy our dreams; they also can make us bitter people. 

When Dinah was raped, she suffered a great tragedy and loss. She lost her virtue, her most precious possession in her culture. And she lost her future as she hoped it would be.

When we are devastated we need rescue and then we need help—someone to listen, to counsel us, to pray with us. We need grace. Grace to forgive. Grace to discern whether to trust again. Grace to accept the unacceptable and keep living, keep breathing, without letting ourselves be swept away in a sea of anger and hatred and vengeance and poisonous thoughts.

Bitterness can destroy people. But when God has hold of our hearts, He has a way of working in us, shaping us, loving us, and helping us to find grace in our times of deepest need.

When life hits with the unexpected and you are left reeling or mourning or lost and confused, remember how very much God has given you in Christ. Because of the cross, Jesus now intercedes for you. You can approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, because His grace is available to you in your time of need (Hebrews 4:15-16). 

Have you been there at some level? Have you ever had to make the choice to turn back to the truth that God is there for you? He loves you. Have you felt His grace giving you the strength to do the impossible when accepting terrible loss? The more you come boldly and ask for His grace to do what you cannot, the more He gives it. You just have to give up your hurts and let Him have them, and learn to live in spite of whatever is done to you.

Never be afraid to ask for grace. God is always willing to give us exactly the help we need to get through something, to forgive, to keep moving forward.

Lord, please protect me from bitterness and remind me of Your compassion for my wounds. Please give me the grace to trust You to right the wrongs done to me.