A Story of Redemption is Being Written in Your Life

The past several years, God has been stripping away the frills of earthly success, independence, and self-confidence in me. Like Elijah, I have felt hidden by the Lord, severely tested by difficult and painful circumstances. I have been in a battle for faith in response to God’s silence and the relentless furnace of affliction. My natural assumption of what God’s goodness and faithfulness should look like has been torn to shreds as my man-made image of him has crumbled little by little.

Little by little, however, as I see glimpses of light shining through the rubble of broken hopes and dreams, God is shaping something new in me. He is continuously weaning my heart from the desires and comforts of this world. He’s giving me glimpses of rest, contentment, and a true desire for his glory, despite the resistance and constant battle being waged within the bounds of my humanity.

I assure you, I am only still standing because of God’s faithfulness to sustain me. Doubts have plagued me; pain has broken me; and the mysteries of God’s ways have tested my faith beyond what I thought it could bear.

And yet, he has not let me go.

Believer, as much as we declare, “God is good! He is always faithful!”, this world (and the enemy) will eventually put those declarations to the test. Will we still believe these things when our deepest earthly loves are threatened, and our perceptions of “God’s “goodness and faithfulness” begin to crumble?

Personally, my thick head has deeply struggled to not equate God’s favor with “blessing” our endeavors, especially when in our eyes, “It’s for him.” I have deeply struggled to not feel the sting of abandonment and hurt when my desperate cries for help seem met with silence and more disappointment. And it has been embattled with suffocating doubts, confusion, and the ugliness of resentment.

God’s faithfulness, at times, hasn’t come in the form of the fulfillment of my desires and prayers. Instead, it’s come through having my eyes opened and heart softened to my attitude of entitlement and discontentment. Entitlement to health, success, financial relief, and God’s favor in ways that make sense to me.

Because the truth is, he doesn’t owe me anything. He doesn’t owe any one of us anything. He’s already given us more than we deserve through salvation, rescuing us from bondage to sin and this world and redeeming us to life in him.

It’s amazing how our perspective of his character shifts when that becomes the immovable foundation his goodness and faithfulness. Gradually, the things that used to cause me to question God’s love have instead become evidence of his eternal favor on me. He is not cruel and indifferent, he is simply stripping away the lesser things that I often measure his goodness by, sowing in me a deeper, more settled faith that praises him in the darkness and rejoices in what he will do, even when that hope is yet to be realized.

Ever since the plan of redemption (through Christ) was set into motion, we have all been on the continuum of God’s plan of redemption for this broken world. But in this life, it will often not look like we expect it to—with our problems going away, our desires being made a reality, or our kingdoms being built. It may look like being hidden by the Lord, stripped of that which hinders us from truly experiencing peace, rest, and joy in him. It may look like him working contrary to what we expect, reshaping our love for this world into a love for that which will last—namely, Jesus himself. It may look like him stripping us from self-confidence and man-made plans, teaching us to trust his true character, rather than our self-made image of him. And Scripture has made it clear why:

He gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to cleanse for himself a people for his own possession, eager to do good works.

Titus 2:14

This process may look like us learning that “redemption” is often the painful process of God prying our fingers off of this world in order to cling to that which is lasting. It’s an eternal work—much like the cross.

Of course, our paths will all look different. Some seasons will break us; some seasons may test our spiritual temperature with the allure of worldly comfort and ease; and some seasons will lead us to a proverbial Mount Sinai, acutely aware of the Lord’s presence and glory in our lives. God redeeming us to himself will take each of us on different journeys. Often, it will leave us with many questions he may not give us answers to.

And yet, no matter how things appear, redemption has happened through Jesus, it is happening every day through the very things we often think are to our detriment, and it will happen to the fullest when we enter glory.

Friend, your (and my) redemption is certain. God’s goodness and faithfulness is a guarantee. No matter how bleak things may appear today, God is at work and our hope is sure. Until our faith becomes sight, we can press on in the confidence that his heart is wholeheartedly for us. For he has promised us:

“I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” – Jeremiah 29:11

Home is around the corner,

Sarah Walton