 God has shown me His redemption power as He has shone His grace and love over the path of my journey. God has made Himself real to me over the past 7 years, real in a way I could not have imagined. Real in a way that brought about the deep healing that I needed. I have discovered what true strength is, what true joy is, and how to forgive and go forward. Exactly 7 years ago I found myself in a situation that resulted in a mess of intense mixed feelings. Relief, shock, regret, sorrow, bitterness, gratefulness... and an odd sense of unreality and numbness. I did not know who I was anymore. I did not know how a heart that was ripped in shredded pieces could ever be put together again. I did not know if God could still see me as worthy of being His child. Listen to my testimony: I cried to God in my distress and he answered me. He freed me from all my fears! But God was with me and made His presence known. He showed Himself to be gentle, compassionate, understanding, and fierce in His love and devotion to me. God revealed His goodness to me as He revealed Himself to me... and He revealed who I am and restored me to who He created me to be. I have learned much through my redemption journey with God. God sees, understands, knows and cares. God is close and ready to comfort. God brings healing and restoration. But there is also an element of choice. Through the process that I walked through, I had to choose to let God love me. Choose to let go. I had to choose... to forgive to trust to lean into God's presence to believe in God's goodness to see from God's perspective And I had to surrender to God. Surrender burdens, pain, worries, concerns, attitudes, goals, and ambitions. I also very intentionally began to live again by doing things that I wanted to do, things that gave happiness. Some small, some bigger. And I let myself step into a more courageous life. To find adventures. Not necessarily major adventures such as rock climbing, but things that were adventurous for me. And one more very important component to healing... I had to allow not only God to be integrated into my life, but also people that He sent my way to walk with me. Ultimately, God is the redeemer, savior, healer; however trusting the right people and letting them get close plays a major role in real and deep healing. And looking back, I can see how far I have come, how God has done a miraculous work in and around me, and how God has so faithfully been beside me every step. And I can believe God will continue His faithfulness and goodness to me. God has already been revealing glimpses of hopes and dreams becoming reality, and I am waiting with joyful anticipation of more manifestations of God's goodness in this new season. But those who wait for the Lord [who expect, look for, and hope in Him] Will gain new strength and renew their power; They will lift up their wings [and rise up close to God] like eagles [rising toward the sun]; They will run and not become weary, They will walk and not grow tired. God has taken me from extreme brokenness to restored wholeness. 
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 Step number one onto the path of this blog... this first blog post. I had a blog for awhile in a past season. And I felt with this new season of mine, it was time to blog again. But on a new website for my new season and new day. The past half dozen years have been quite the time of learning and growing, of facing feelings and experiences of the past and processing through that with a shift of perspective. Due to all that processing and perspective change, and realizing some things about my purpose and identity, I felt it was time for my new season and new day to start, and to step into that by boldly stepping on a path pursuing ways of getting my story out there, to spread hope, joy, peace, freedom, truth... and long story short, I just launched a podcast - Coffee, Tea, God and Me - and am now beginning this blog. For awhile these will likely be short posts as I focus more on the podcast. But I am definitely capable of long ramblings when I have the time! In spoken and written words! Hahaha. Speaking of rambling (or rather writing of rambling hah), I feel that this post is about to become what I call "reflective rambling." I have been waiting a long, long time for many hopes and dreams to come to fruition. Some things have materialized in part, but mostly I have had to settle with glimpses of what I wait for as time keeps going forward and I feel like I am stuck. And sometimes hope almost all but disappears and I am clinging tenaciously to the tiny shred of hope left. And there have been times I am about to lose the grasp that I have even on that last shred. But then... God steps close to me... and when I am willing to listen to him... hope rises... and I rise in that hope. Key part of that - when I am willing to listen and believe God. The following verses are ones that have helped me hold on when there's only that little piece of hope left that's about to slip away. Powerful truth. Our faith in Jesus transfers God’s righteousness to us and he now declares us flawless in his eyes. This means we can now enjoy true and lasting peace with God, all because of what our Lord Jesus, the Anointed One, has done for us. Our faith guarantees us permanent access into this marvelous kindness that has given us a perfect relationship with God. What incredible joy bursts forth within us as we keep on celebrating our hope of experiencing God’s glory! But that’s not all! Even in times of trouble we have a joyful confidence, knowing that our pressures will develop in us patient endurance. And patient endurance will refine our character, and proven character leads us back to hope. And this hope is not a disappointing fantasy, because we can now experience the endless love of God cascading into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who lives in us! "...enjoy true and lasting peace with God... permanent access into this marvelous kindness... we have a joyful confidence... we can now experience the endless love of God cascading into our hearts through the Holy Spirit..." Yes and Amen, thank you, Lord! And now with "joyful confidence" I am putting hope and faith to action by courageously moving ahead with these steps that I can take right now, the podcast and blog. And I am finally going to self-publish a book in 2023! Details and release date to be determined. I could say so much more on hope, but as Thanksgiving Day is coming to an end to transition into another day and another season, I will bring this post to an end with this idea... I am thankful that I have a living God who is a God of hope, and that he has been with me through it all and has turned ashes into beauty and mourning into joy, and he has turned suffering into strength. And this wonderfully powerful but gracious God will continue to walk with me into the new day, and so I will continue to rise up and shine. Now may God, the fountain of hope, fill you to overflowing with uncontainable joy and perfect peace as you trust in him. And may the power of the Holy Spirit continually surround your life with his super-abundance until you radiate with hope! |
AuthorHi, I'm Angela Terese! Archives
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