Being so focused on how you feel blocks your sight of who Jesus is.
When you feel like the Lord disappoints you or withholds something from you, how do you respond? Do you run to Him with that hurt, or do you run from Him in that hurt? How you respond shapes your relationship and deepens or damages it.
A promise from God is a great blessing, but the Person of God is greater than the blessing. When a promise seems broken or withdrawn, His Person, His nature, remains constant. When disappointment comes or heartbreak hits, human nature is to complain. Our carnal mind points fingers at God and blames Him for what He didn’t do, but there’s a better way.
We can be hit by disappointment, sorrow, hurt, and grief, and still choose to praise the Lord. We can focus on who He is and what He’s already done. Our inner man taps into Holy Spirit and overflows with praise, love, and devotion even in the middle of a storm because we choose praise over despair.
So yes, maybe God didn’t give you exactly what you wanted or expected, but He already gave you so much more than you knew was possible. He saved your life. He gave you His Son so you wouldn’t have to die for your sin (John 3:16). He sealed His Spirit in you to help you, guide you, and strengthen you. He gave you His Word so you could get to know Him for yourself and be able to fellowship with Him daily. He gave you victory over the enemy and the power to overcome darkness in the Name of Jesus.
Praise Your Way Through the Storm
Choosing to focus on who He is and what He already did elevates you above the storm raging in your mind, body, or environment. Choosing to praise reminds you of His love, His faithfulness, His compassion, and His strength. Praising God instead of blaming Him means you experience pain without being broken by it.
Did you catch that?
Praising God instead of blaming Him means you experience pain without being broken by it.
This means you can be hurting, grieving, disappointed, or frustrated, but your relationship with God remains intact. The psalmist cried out to God in Psalm 77, but he stayed with Him. Job questioned God in the Book of Job, but he stayed with Him. Jeremiah lamented and wept in the Book of Lamentations, but he stayed with God because he knew Him. And because he knew Him, he had hope even as he gazed at the smoking rubble of his beloved city (Lamentations 3:21-23).
When you experience pain without being broken by it, you experience God’s love without any barriers or conditions. What does that look like?
“I still love Him even if I don’t get this job.”
“I still love Him even if I don’t move to this city.”
“I still love Him even if I don’t marry this person.”
“I still love Him even if I don’t get healed today.”
Your praise becomes unconditional. Your love becomes unconditional. Your faith becomes unconditional. You deepen your prayer because you go beyond what He did or didn’t give you, and you focus on His beauty, His glory, and His love.
When you praise in the middle of the storm, you release Jesus into that storm. Singing and speaking His praise releases His power, His life, and His glory into that storm. Your situation takes second place because all your heart is on Him, not on how you feel. This isn’t because how you feel isn’t valid or doesn’t matter, but because who He is is greater than how you feel. You’re able to praise no matter what when who He is is greater than what you see, what you feel, or what you understand.
Pain that doesn’t break you ushers in the glory of God. Pain that doesn’t break your faith or trust in the Lord allows you to experience His comfort and His touch even in the darkest night. Suffering is the only way to experience His love in a way that’ll seal your heart to Him forever.
Pain allows you to know the heart of God. You can’t know how tender He is with your broken places until He heals your broken heart (Psalm 147:3; Isaiah 61:1). You can’t know how comforting He really is until He heals your grief and gives you joy again (2 Corinthians 1:3-4; Psalm 30:11-12). And you can’t receive the truth of His unconditional love for you if your faith has never been tested in the fire of suffering (Isaiah 54:10).
Pain softens your heart to receive the Lord’s love and respond with love and devotion. Getting lost in His love protects you from being shattered by the pain. Your heart softens because His love heals it, nurtures it, and opens it up again. Have you ever felt your heart raging in grief or closing up in sorrow? Then you know the joy of that open, spacious feeling in your chest when you feel like you can finally love and laugh and sing again.
Jesus’s love softens your heart so you can open up to Him and not allow the pain or grief become a wall between you and Him.
Because a soft heart is too full of love and praise to allow any walls of pain or grief block the flow.
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