I met a new friend at a coffee shop the other day and one of the many things we discussed was loss. We each had experienced this injury in different ways.
Loss can feel so tragic, so empty, and so defeating. No one likes loss.
Even the definition, “the state or feeling of grief when deprived of someone or something of value,” feels tragic.
However, this is just the human perception and definition of loss.
Loss to God has a way bigger picture. It has an understanding of restoration and completion.
If God takes something away from us is because He is going to replace it with something better.
When we devote our hearts to God and ask for His protection over our lives, He will hold up His end of the bargain. Anything that is not good for us or not His timing has to go. He never takes away things to hurt us. What God has in store for us, no human can take away.
Understand that “Often the most valuable, satisfying, and beneficial gifts come through experiences of suffering and loss.” – Jon Bloom
Just like the people of Israel did when they were in the desert, we tend to focus on loss. Israel was so focused on the past that they were missing out on their future. When most of us suffer loss, we become nostalgic. We want what was taken to come back.
Personally, I did this to myself for years. I could not stop grieving the loss of my beloved home, ministry, and church. What I didn’t realize was that it was a misplaced hope based on my own competency and control, not looking to the Lord and giving my burdens and losses to Him.
And … What if the loss of something we cherished is not a taking away but more of a giving it up to the one who gave it in the first place?
What if a loss is actually an embrace, turning to the fullness of God’s grace and resting in it?
I had spent so much energy on my own perception of loss that I had forgotten to look to the Lord, who gave me all my blessings in the first place.
Our God is the God who sees. He is close to us when we are brokenhearted. God’s care gloriously releases us from the impossible pressures and illusions of our own competency and control into His gracious freedom.
Loss gives rise to a need for change and triggers an acceptance which leads inevitably to profound consolation. It compels people to review, reassess, and readapt their lives.
God purposes for his children to live a life full of our cup running over. A life that is holy and beautiful regardless of human circumstances.
Furthermore…Often it is in the taking away that our true love and trust are revealed. The most valuable, most satisfying, most beneficial, longest-lasting gifts we receive and pass along to others end up coming through the experiences and perception of our losses. Amen.
“And we know that in ALL things, God works together for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose.”
Romans 8:28
“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord. “Plans to prosper you and not to harm you. Plans to give you a hope and a future.”
Jeremiah 29:11
This is an updated edition of a post originally published on Holy Beautiful Life
Featured Image by Peggy und Marco Lachmann-Anke from Pixabay
[…] Open the full article on the kingdomwinds.com site […]