It was Never Meant to be this Way…

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.  He was in the beginning with God.  All things were made through Him, and without Him was not anything made that was made.  In Him was life, and the life was the light of men.  The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has no overcome it.” 

John 1: 1-5

It was never meant to be this way. These are the words that I hear when I see the pain and suffering of others.  These are the words I hear when my heart is breaking at the hands or words of another.  These are the words I hear when I look around and see the brokenness of this world.  I hear my Lord Jesus say to me, “It was never meant to be this way”.

When I see a small child walking all alone to their bus stop. When another marriage is broken apart by lust, selfishness, abuse, betrayal or abandonment. When I see a parent neglect their child or a child is abandoned. It was never meant to be this way.

When image bearers of God, our fellow human beings, are murdered senselessly.  When a woman is raped or a child sexually abused.  When children are trafficked for pornography and become sex slaves at the hands of evil gripped people.  When abuse happens at the hands of a trusted friend or family member.  I hear my Lord cry out “It was never meant to be this way!” And He cries.

In the scripture above we see that Jesus (the Word) was there in the beginning and nothing was made without Him but everything was made through Him.  That He is the light that the darkness can never extinguish.  Let’s go back to the beginning.

In Genesis 1, we see the creation of all things.  Jesus was there.  I would love for you to read it for yourself so you could see that in the beginning He created it all and called it “good”.  When He made us He called us “very good”.  

Then what happened? What went wrong? How is it that we have the world that we live in today? In a word, “we” happened, sin happened. Our God is gracious. He could have forced us to be good. He could have made it so we wouldn’t have the ability to choose. Instead, He gave us free will. It is this free will and bad choices on our part that ushered in the Fall.

If you continue reading in Genesis you will see how the serpent, the enemy of our souls, satan, twisted the truth, and used our pride to turn us away from our God. The serpent said, if you want to know as much as God, eat the fruit. We were given all we could ever need and all that was asked of us was not to partake of that one tree. And if you haven’t already guessed, we took the bait. Humanity chose. Vanity, selfishness, greed, always seeking more, enter sin. After the fall, they continued to make poor choices. They had disobeyed the one and only command given. That was the fatal mistake. Poor choices have consequences.

God enters the garden searching for His children and they are hiding from Him. Hiding. From their Father, their Maker. Their second mistake. Instead of coming to their Father, they hid. When we sin, the first thing we should do is run to the Father and confess it, not hide.

Finally, their third mistake. When questioned by God as to why they disobeyed, Adam blamed Eve and Eve blamed the serpent. They did not even own and take responsibility for their sin.

Friends, when we mess up, and we will mess up, don’t hide from Jesus, run to Jesus!  When we mess up, as adults, we must take full responsibility for our actions and confess it.  If not, what we keep in the dark will continue to hold us down, keep us from growing, and keep us from growing closer to God.  What we refuse to face and deal with we are doomed to repeat, will keep us bound, and disconnected.

God knew all this would happen.  He knows the beginning from the end.  He is the Alpha and the Omega after all. He already had a plan in place to redeem us from the sins He knew we would commit.  He already had a way for us to come back.  Back into the garden, back into His presence.  JESUS!

Though this world is thrown into blinding darkness, Jesus is still the light.  The light in the darkness that nothing can ever extinguish.  He promises for those who love Him, he will make all things work out for our good and His Glory (Romans 8:28).  

You may be in the thick of it right now. What happened to you still brings painful memories, anger and heartache. Friend, I can honestly say that I not only understand but have been there and still have days like that. I have been the one to fail and have had others “fail” me. Praise God I can also say His promises are true! Jesus has taken the worst things that have ever happened to me and used it to bring about great change in me and to do great things for those around me.

Because of the darkest seasons of my life, I can walk with others going through the same. I can speak into their lives with the truth of God, with not only knowledge but experience. I know their pain, intimately. I get to be a living testimony that life does go on and can be good again with Jesus. Bringing that to others has been one of the greatest blessings of my life! Suffering redeemed and used for good and for His Glory! Amen!

So my dear Friend, your pain, your suffering, that abuse, that betrayal, your memories of past abuses or abandonment cannot be reversed and should have never been in the perfect world God meant us to live in. BUT GOD. His promises are true and if you let Jesus in He will redeem your pain. He will hold you through it. He will turn even that thing that happened to you for your good and for His Glory.

Would you trust Him?  Trust Him with your pain.  Would you cry out to Him that question that bellows out from your heart, “WHY GOD?!” WHY THIS?  WHY ME?”.  He can take it.  He’s actually been waiting for it.  At least now His creation, His child is talking to Him.  He wants to comfort you and guide you. He wants to heal your broken places.  As much healing as can be found this side of eternity.  Which is more than you think.  

I pray you too get to hear Him tell you personally, in your heart, “It was never meant to be this way”.

Come back to the Father.  There is only one way to the Father and that is through the Son. And His name is Jesus!

He’s Waiting… Waiting just for you!