You Are Not the Forgotten Woman

I know you, because I am just like you. And I don’t care how different your life looks from mine or the diversity of our valleys. You are me. And I am you. In so many ways.

These words are for you.It’s like the darkest place you’ve ever been, right? Like you could suffocate or be crushed in an instant. It’s like you’re walking in a hard place next to people who are rubbing salt in your wounds. Like the cold, impersonal floor knows your tears better than anyone else. It’s like questions that grab you and shake you and say, is God actually good? It’s like sitting in church and being unable to sing. Like you’re surrounded by fear on every side.

So yes, we know each other.

And I need you to hear this.

God works in your life with love, and He is doing good in your soul. It doesn’t have to feel good to be good. Favor doesn’t have to feel right to be right there. God makes abundant life come out of both blessings and burdens (because He’s just that powerful). God will have His way with you and it may possibly be through the impossible Red Sea.

And if you’re walking near to God, can I tell you something else? You’re more whole now than you’ve ever been before….even if a whole lot else feels broken. And this valley isn’t your despair or your defeat.

I dare you to look back right now.

Perhaps, the best good God had in mind for you was nearness to Himself. Maybe, He’s making you a desert to show you how He can fill it up with springs of life. God knows your soul intimately and He wants all of it. For His glory? Yes, absolutely. But also because He wants to satisfy you and He knows that only He can.

So yes, God is actually good.

I dare you to believe that His ways are not your ways. You’ve got to believe that. Right now. In this very second. Because that’s truth that will get you up off the bathroom floor. You’re more whole now than you were before all this began. And I hope that sticks.

So what about the rejection and insignificance you feel while you’re still standing here? These are hard feelings to feel, I know.

Let me assure you-

You are not here because you are lesser, you are here because you are being made lovelier. You are not here because God forgot you, but because God has something for you right here. You are not here, because God is refusing to rescue you out of your circumstances, but rather because He knows the real rescue is changing you within this place. And He wants what’s best for you. All the time.

Maybe you’re not only standing in a mess, but also in the beginning of a miracle. The kind that only God can do. The kind He delights in doing. The kind of miracle where He shows you how to sing praises to Him in the storm even while you are free to pour out your pain.

The kind of miracle in which you can confidently say not my will but thine be done! The kind where God weaves joy into your soul as He becomes your sole-satisfaction. And the kind of miracle where you are not alone even though this is a lonely place.

That doesn’t sound like the life of a forgotten woman. That doesn’t sound like the life of a woman who is just an obligation to God. That doesn’t sound like a woman living a lesser kind of life.

Instead, it sounds like the life of a woman being covered with love in the least lovely places. It sounds like the life of a woman who can breathe in deep and run out the door fearless. It sounds like the life of a woman who is deeply cherished while she walks through the deepest valley.

And you know something?

That sounds a lot like the life you have right now.