Regaining Strength After You’ve Lost Your Way

by Alexandra Copeland

I lost touch with a dear friend, but through a mutual acquaintance, I heard that she was having a very difficult time. She had been married 5 years when the doctors told her they didn’t think she’d be able to get pregnant. It was such a blow that she and her husband struggled to hold the marriage together after hearing the news. They knew they wanted children, but they wanted to wait until they were more financially stable to begin a family. She became so saddened by this that she lost her way, and nothing her husband did seemed to lessen her unhappiness. The marriage was falling apart, and even though she knew her husband loved her, she was almost relieved by their separation. She felt undeserving of his devotion and acceptance; and she just wanted to go somewhere and hide.

All of us think we know what we’re made of. We think we know ourselves so well, but in truth, only God knows us through and through. His Word tells us that He knows even the number of hairs on our heads. He knows our past, present, and future. He also knows the very thing that will cause the fabric of our happiness to unravel and do so faster than we’re able to handle. This is not a time to try and rely on our own strength to get us through. Proverbs 3:5 tells us to trust in the Lord with all our hearts, and don’t lean on our own understanding. There are simply some things that we are not going to be able to figure out.

Through the Apostle Paul, in Romans 8:35, God asked “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword?” The answer to this question is of course, nothing! Nothing can separate us from the love of Christ. He will never stop loving us. And we must understand that this is no ordinary love that he gives us. He tells us about his love in John 15:13, where he said there’s no greater love than that of laying down one’s life for his friends. This is what he did for all of us. You see, we have to understand that Jesus Christ didn’t have to die. He said in John 10:18(NLT), “No one can take my life from me. I sacrifice it voluntarily. For I have the authority to lay it down when I want to and also to take it up again. For this is what my Father has commanded.”

Jesus Christ willingly gave his life for us. Allowing this truth to seep into our brain cells gives us the foundation to approach Romans 8:38-39(NLT) with an attitude of the kind of gratitude this passage deserves. In it, the Apostle Paul tells us, “38 And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow—not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love. 39 No power in the sky above or in the earth below—indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord.” This is a love so unconditional, unlimited, and overwhelming that it’s utterly mind-boggling. It’s how God feels about us. The question we must ask is whether we feel this way about Him. 

He loves us regardless, whether we love Him or not, but we would do ourselves the greatest good if we accept what He has so generously and freely offered. One of the ways we do this is by allowing the Lord Jesus Christ to come into our hearts so that he can heal our broken places. When our wounds are so deep that all we want to do is disconnect, we’re cutting ourselves off from God’s love, and He doesn’t deserve this. 

When Adam and Eve were in the Garden of Eden, the Spirit of the Lord communed with them daily. From this we can see very clearly that God’s purpose for creating us is to have fellowship with Him. He chose us first, and He wants a relationship with us. He wants to help us because He is love, and He is showing us the way love behaves. God created us to be children of love, and we are here on this earth to learn lessons that He wants us to learn. And these lessons will sometimes bring us to a place where we have to make a choice. Are we going to remain lost in our sorrow and sadness, or will we allow God to rejuvenate our strength? Will we surrender everything to Him, even our pain? If we give everything to Him, and trust Him, we’ll regain our strength and find our way back to purpose and fulfillment.

Only God can direct our paths. Philippians 1:6(NLT) tells us, “And I am certain that God, who began the good work within you, will continue his work until it is finally finished on the day when Christ Jesus returns.” It’s our choice! God will not force His way into our hearts so He can heal them. We must invite Him in and have confidence that His plan for us is a good plan, even if it doesn’t feel that way. Let’s make the right choice. We can have what God says we can have; we can be who He says we can be if we will allow Him to come into our hearts and love us the way HE wants to love us. ■

Scripture quotations marked (NLT) are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.

“Regaining Strength After You’ve Lost Your Way”, by Alexandra Copeland. Springfield Fellowship © 2019. All rights reserved. All praise and honor to God through Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior.