“For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the LORD, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon Me and go and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart.” (Jeremiah 29:11-13 NKJV)

Sometimes the Lord allows us to experience loss to show us that we need to be more dependent on Him. That is, He allows us to go through times of trouble to draw us closer to His good will. Thus He puts us in a place where we will receive what He desires to give us, and teaches us things about ourselves that we couldn’t see before.

Because we have a tendency to dwell on the hardships of the past we fail to experience the joy that the LORD wants to give us in the present. But it should not be this way, because God not only wants to give us good things, He has the power to make all things work together for good to those who love Him (Rom. 8:28). However, before we can receive what He wants to give us we must let go of what we no longer have. I know that that may sound strange. After all, if you no longer have something then how could you let go of it? Well, that is the problem. You see, if you can’t change what has already come to pass then there is no sense in thinking about how good it would be if it had never happened.

Therefore, there comes a point in time when we must accept what we can’t change and move forward with the assurance that God knows what He’s doing and will meet all of our needs.   So it is best to think in terms of the future that God has prepared for us rather than to dwell on the past. In other words, we shouldn’t think about what we have lost so much that we would let it hinder our growth in Christ.  Instead, we ought to think about all that we have gained in Him and what we will yet receive as we continue to move closer to Jesus Christ.

You will continue to go through trials, as we all do, but the presence of pain is not to be taken as a sign that you are alone. For God is with you! And He knows your pain better than you know yourself. Therefore, let God be the one who completes you, and some day you will understand why He allowed you to experience loss and hardship. Then you will learn to appreciate Him even more, because you will discover that it all happened to bring about better things within your life, and for the purpose of giving you wisdom to better relate to and console those who are going through similar experiences. Hence, you will be a light to them in their time of trouble as God has been and is a Light to you.

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