Jeremy Camp - The Story's Not Over Devotional Series Sample

3. Father

None of us can walk through this life unscathed by pain. Some of us experience it earlier than others and in various different ways, but a part of living in this fallen world is experiencing brokenness. We feel this the most in our relationships with each other. The hurt we feel may come from a relationship with a close friend, a parent, or someone you respect who you thought would never let you down. Perhaps someone threw you under the bus or betrayed you in order to cover themselves – they used you as the scapegoat and it caused deep hurt. Maybe there were lies and deception along with the betrayal. With the brokenness in your relationship of what was once a treasured friendship, comes confusion with how you got there, disappointment, and a new fight to learn to walk in forgiveness. There are moments in these painful circumstances where we might try really hard in our own strength to fight through these things, but when we don’t go to the Lord, we exhaust ourselves and we’re left feeling as if we’re on the verge of a breakdown, if perhaps we don’t have a breakdown completely.

It’s often easy for us to get overwhelmed by our pain and even feel like we’re being swallowed up by our circumstances. We forget we have a Heavenly Father from whose presence it is impossible to hide. He knows our inward thoughts and feelings and He offers us a place of safety to heal from the hurt we’re experiencing. 

As Psalm 46:1 says, 

“God is our refuge and strength,an ever-present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear…”

The enemy would love to convince us that we’re isolated and alone, or that there’s no hope. But I love how that verse describes God as being “ever-present”. He is not some far off, distant God – He is near to us and knows what it’s like to be betrayed and abandoned by the people closest to Him. Don’t give up the fight - find yourself in His healing arms today and let your pain be washed away by His love.