How Does One Enter Into the Rest of God When Sorrow Flows?
That October I had found out how my husband had betrayed our marriage and Christmas was nothing short of a colossal farce. No one knew the truth while I played the part of an actress that would rival the likes in Hollywood.
I could barely find the will to live, let alone find rest or peace for my tortured soul. I knew I was falling…falling…falling into an abyss so deep, there was no human way out.
As the months went by despair leaked into every pore of my being, especially when the two people I trusted more than life itself (my prayer partners) inadvertently betrayed my confidence. As my life unraveled at the speed only gossip flows, depression pressed in.
Thankfully God is not confined to this world or to its solutions. God stood faithful. Though I felt undone, God spoke truth into my spirit… “Blossom there is a way out of this pit.”
I want to share with you what I learned. It started with Psalm 13 and was by no means an over-night process, but a continual decision to believe the truth God revealed.
(NIV)
A psalm of David.
1 How long, Lord? Will you forget me forever?
How long will you hide your face from me?
2 How long must I wrestle with my thoughts
and day after day have sorrow in my heart?
How long will my enemy triumph over me?
3 Look on me and answer, Lord my God.
Give light to my eyes, or I will sleep in death,
4 and my enemy will say, “I have overcome him)”
and my foes will rejoice when I fall.
5 But I trust in your unfailing love;
my heart rejoices in your salvation.
6 I will sing the Lord’s praise,
for he has been good to me.
As I read these verses I realized that either David was schizophrenic in his thinking from the beginning of the chapter to the end, or…he understood something I did not.
He understood how to enter the rest and peace of God in the midst of turmoil, sorrow, and deep sadness.
He understood how to wail out to God…yet trust!
He understood how to vent his pain, yet believe in God’s goodness.
King David's three “D’s” became my life-line.
DECIDE…to lean into the truth of God’s word, even when I didn’t understand. I had a decision to make...TO STAND IN FAITH or fall, TO TRUST IN GOD’S UNFAILING LOVE, or succumb to a joyless existence.
DESIRE…change. I couldn’t be content to stay in the doldrums of depression. I had to look beyond the confines of the pit I was in and SPEAK OUT, SING OUT, SHOUT OUT, MY TRUST AND MY DESIRE FOR A BRIGHTER TOMORROW as David did in this Psalm. I had to look back at all the ways God had helped me through difficulties in the past and claim healing.
DETERMINATION…Healing takes persistent determination. I had a very influential member of my family who went through infidelity in her thirties…she lived the rest of her life a wounded, embittered soul. This example forced me to see where unforgiveness and self-pity lead. Determination set in to pursue Godly healing. God did not disappoint, nor will He disappoint you.
As with David in the Psalm above, I began to enter God’s peace that passes all understanding. As I spoke out my trust in a God who never fails and began to believe healing was possible, combined with the power of praising God for things in my life that were good, healing followed. (Contrary to my pain-filled mindset, not all was dark in my life, I had two beautiful children to live for.)
Today I joyfully proclaim that there is a way out of the torturous place you find yourself. For God does not want the circumstances of our life, nor the heartache inflicted upon us by others, to determine our future. He heals. He restores the soul. He is our PEACE ON EARTH.
Write to me if you need encouragement…I will listen, I will pray, I will care. I know how difficult Christmas can be in the midst of sorrow. YOU are not alone.
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About the author
Blossom Turner is an award-winning novelist, and a free-lance writer published in Chicken Soup and Kernels of Hope anthologies, and former newspaper columnist on health and fitness. A Word Guild semi-finalist for Anna's Secret, Katherine's Arrangement, Amelia’s Heartsong, and a Word Guild winner for Best Romance for Lucinda’s Defender. She has found her home in the writing of historical fiction but is open to wherever God leads. The many 5-star reviews attest to the power of love and romance authentically woven into the Shenandoah Bride Series about five sisters and their five love stories.
Blossom lives in British Columbia, Canada, with her husband, David, of forty years and their dog Lacey named after Lacey Spring, Virginia, where this series takes place. A former businesswoman, personal trainer, and mother of two grown children she is now pursuing her lifelong dream of writing full-time. A hopeless romantic at heart, she believes all story should give the reader significant entertainment value. However, her writing embodies the struggles of real life. She infuses the reality of suffering with the hope of Christ to give a healthy dose of relatable encouragement to her reader. Her desire is to leave the reader with a yearning to live for Christ on a deeper level, or at the very least, create a hunger to seek for more.
Co-author Suzie Zanewhich
Suzie is a certified life coach, leader of emotional health, and resource specialist. She has found her niche as a soul coach.
Suzie finds purpose in empowering individuals to move towards growth, healing, and alignment with their authentic self. Suzie is driven by a calling to live authentically, as the person God created her to be, to reach her fullest potential and lead others to do the same. Her passion is to help others find meaning through discovering their strengths, gifts, personality, temperament and core values.
Suzie is a life-long learner, continuously immersing herself in new courses to learn more about human behaviour, relationships, psychology, child development, emotions, trauma and healing. Because of her craving to always learn more she has earned the title of resource specialist in the area of self-discovery.
Suzie Zanewich lives with her husband in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. She has a patchwork family of four grown children, two daughters, two sons and three granddaughters.
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