Will you place your trust in His mercy and grace today

“I can never escape from your spirit! I can never get away from your presence. If I ride in the wings of the morning, if I dwell by the farthest oceans, even there your hand will guide me, and your strength will support me.” Psalm 139:7, 9-10 NLT

Do you ever just feel like running away? Do you wish you could hide someplace where no one will ever find you? Have the cares of this world ever gotten so bad that you want to go to sleep and not wake-up until they are all over? Ever want to trade your life for someone else’s?

I remember as a teenage girl somewhere between the age of sixteen and eighteen, I wanted to run away. I wanted to hide where no one could ever find me. I just knew that life would be better if I could get out on my own, away from little sister and brother, away from chores and homework, away from the nagging feeling that tugged at my heart; the one that constantly said; “You are not loved and you are certainly not good enough.” As a teen, I felt like nothing I did was ever good enough, nothing made a positive impact on my life or those around me. I lived a sheltered life of sadness and depression and I just wanted to give it all up.

I began writing as a young girl. What I wrote about was not the things I write about today rather the aches my heart lived on a daily basis. I wrote about boyfriends I dreamed of and love gone bad. I wrote about what it would be like to be noticed and admired. I remember crying a lot because I felt so lonely. I had surface friends but never true friends, never the kind that would stick through thick and thin. After high school they were no more, partly my fault and partly theirs. We all went our separate ways some to college and one (namely me) got married. I just knew that I had finally found my happily ever after. Until one day my world fell apart and all I’d ever dreamed of was over, partly my fault and partly his.

I had come to know Christ some years before and I thought I’d known Him pretty well. I truly thought that I was exempt from the heartaches I’d known in the past. I thought for sure that finally my life was headed for happiness.
I just knew that now great things were going to happen. Well, many great things did happen but likewise disaster. It took a good while for me to get back up after so many blows but just as my God promises, He picked me back up and set my feet on solid ground. And I can honestly say my life has been on an uphill journey ever since, a journey of joy, love, peace and contentment but let’s not forget the occasional chaos. Though my world at times is quite crazy and I am unsure of what my future here on earth holds, I am certain of my heavenly future. I am sure of the life ever after. The one where I get to spend eternity with the Lover of my soul! I know without a doubt that He has a place already picked out for me up there in the sweet by and by. And I bet you, I can look out my window and see His big, velvety, white, fluffy, cushy chair! That’s how close my house is going to be to His, I just know it, because He loves me! His love for me is unfailing, I am the apple of His eye and He is wild about me (and you). He created us for the soul purpose of sharing an intimate relationship with Him. He desires us. He longs for us. He dreams about us. His word says He knit us carefully in our mother’s womb. (Psalm 139) Us means you and me.

As you face the trials of this unpredictable world, when you think your life is not worth living, think again. When you feel you are unloved and forgotten, think again. When you tread through piles of heartache that seem to go on forever, look up. Look up to the One who is looking down at you. He sees your every cry; He feels your every pain. He knows disappointment like you’ve never known. He, the One who controls the Universe is able to pick you up out of the miry pit. He longs to set your feet on solid ground, His ground. He beckons, “Seek Me, cast your cares on my shoulders, look in My face and I will rescue you.”

The words to this famous hymn are ringing in my ears right now:
“Turn your eyes upon Jesus, Look full in His wonderful face, and the things of earth will grow strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace.”

There is nowhere we can hide that He can’t find us. We can’t out run Him nor can we trade places with someone else. If we go to the ends of the earth, He will find us. If we turn to the left, He is there. When we think that death would be better, He promises life. He has set our path exactly the way it is turning out even though we don’t understand it. We must run and never give up, all the way to the finish line. As we place our trust in His mercy and grace, we can be sure of a glorious future, a future made in Heaven. Our own place, the place He specifically picked out for each one, right next to His big, velvety, white, fluffy, cushy chair.