The wounds and scars your body and heart now bare are not those of an abandoned boy or little girl, but of those of an adopted and well-loved child.
If you can’t recognize God’s chastisement, it’s because you don’t believe in your sonship.
It’s because you don’t quite know the heart of God.
Don’t focus how you’ve been wounded and scarred, but seek out the teacher who permitted it. If you seek Him, you will find Him and discover hidden treasures stored in dark places.
As soon as your heart learns the significance of your wounds and scars, light will come bursting in and your strength and passion will be renewed like never before.
Or, you can reject all this and be stuck in a “Groundhog Day” life, whereby you repeat the cycle of God’s chastisement until you surrender to his love.
God treats every son and daughter with the same passion. He wants you holy so that you can be whole. He’ll cut away anything that stands in the way of your wholeness. Sometimes it feels like abandonedment — even in your loneliness he is at work.
Don’t relapse into your old ways. Don’t pretend to have it all together — pride is not the answer. Abandon your false attempts to cover-up. God sees right through your charades.
Did you really think you could get away with sin?
Only an illegitimate son or daughter can escape correction, but a true child of God must be refined.
So your hardship is not a string of bad luck. No, they’re a rope to pull you closer to the heart of your Heavenly Papa.
Seek to know the heart of God, and you’ll never get lost in difficult days. You’ll never again forget that you belong to him.
He is a fierce lover and a faithful Father.
Call To Courage 