5 Days to Believe You’re Going to Make It Sample

Healing Is a Daily Choice

Can I encourage you with something today?

Even if you don’t see it, you are healing. You are growing. God is shaping you into who He created you to be.

I know it can be tempting to doubt it, but today is another step forward into a future God is paving for you … a future that may look different than you thought but a future He has deemed good.

You see, the longer I live, the more I see healing less as a destination and more of a daily choice. In case your heart is feeling weary, I hope you’ll feel a little more encouraged that you’re not alone and your beautiful, unique story is still unfolding. The circumstances of today are part of your story, but they are not the whole story.

I thought you may need a heart-to-heart talk right now because I know what it’s like to

Start to wonder if these hard situations will be never-ending…

Question if you’ll survive this time of suffering and come out on the other side…

Process even more devastating news that makes your mind race, your throat tighten, and your eyes swell with tears…

Try to pray in moments when God feels incredibly distant…

I understand. Sometimes all this pain can feel so very pointless.

Over the last couple of years, I’ve faced one hardship after another. At many points, I’ve wondered how I would make it through. Even now, I’m still very much in process. Yes, I’ve done the hard heart work with my counselor and processed all the things with my closest friends. I’ve been healing. I’ve gained perspective and understanding of how to move forward. I’ve made progress. But none of that changes the deep heartbreak I went through.

But friend, no matter what we’re trying to make sense of right now, God is near to us in our heartbreak, and He cares about our despair. Past, present, and future, God is still here.

Right this very minute, in the middle of our own difficult circumstances, we get to choose to cling to truth harder than ever before. We can allow hope to be infused into even the most impossible-looking circumstances. We can command our weary hearts to remember God is in charge, and we are not, and that’s actually a freeing place to be.

As you wrestle with it all—the progress made, the steps forward still to endure, the painful, time-consuming, beautifully refining process that healing is—I want us to read a verse that is so comforting to me: “In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans” (Romans 8:26 NIV).

Every time I read these words, I’m reminded I can simply surrender to Jesus and trust Him with every part of the journey I’m on. And I believe the more we surrender to trusting the Lord, rather than trying to make our own way, the less we will suffer. Oh, Jesus, please help me live like this today.

RESPOND: What would it look like for you to surrender to Jesus in what you’re facing today? How are you encouraged by the truth that healing is a daily choice, not a destination?

Some say time heals all wounds ... but what if that’s not true? It’s what we do with that time that moves us forward or not. And without an intentional rhythm woven into our harder seasons, connecting with the Lord can very quickly begin to feel overwhelming and like just another item on our to-do lists. Lysa TerKeurst understands this struggle. That’s why she’s created a sacred space for you to simply show up and bookend your day with God in the pages of her devotional, You’re Going to Make it: 50 Morning & Evening Devotions to Unrush Your Mind, Uncomplicate Your Heart, And Experience Healing Today.