Dear friends & strangers, your responses have blessed my heart. Thank you! Will you help me by leaving a review on Amazon? When I consider buying a book, reviews are the first thing I check—you probably do, too. If you have read enough of Finding Hope to have an opinion, would post a brief review? If you don’t yet have a copy, you can purchase it here: Finding Hope, 65 Meditations for a Broken Heart.
Today I offer a final sample, one with a perspective we all need – DAY 31.
Lord, Remind Me this is Temporary
Blessed are those whose strength is in you,
whose hearts are set on pilgrimage.
Psalm 84:5
When my pain was most acute, I couldn’t imagine recovery or an end to suffering. The future mocked me, scoffing at any hint of purpose. My strength was gone, my vision dim, and my fortitude frail. At one time today’s verse was a favorite—now it challenged me with the reminder that life is a pilgrimage.
A pilgrim is someone who journeys in foreign lands. I was in a foreign land. This place of loss was untraveled territory that felt strange and threatening. The assurance that I was “passing through” was a glorious truth that prodded hope. My suffering was temporary—this was not my home, not my destiny. I was “passing through.” I was enroute to an eternal home and this valley of weeping was not my journey’s end. As I meditated on this, God gave me strength to face the days ahead.
Fellow pilgrim, we are on a mission and the path we walk has purpose, bringing us to our final destination. When we reach our road’s end we will be free of sorrow, pain, and regret. These painful valleys are not home, not the end of our story. Our valley of tears can become a place of springs, allowing us to grow from strength to strength, not from weakness to weakness.
Holy Spirit, remind us! Keep us from pitching our tents in the valley. Help us refuse the lies of the enemy that emphasize our weakness. Protect us from the trap of fear. You are our strength and will guide us through our pilgrimage to our final destiny—and it will be glorious!
Finding Hope, 65 Meditations for a Broken Heart, page 101-102
BARBARA HIGBY 