A Letter From This Side of Joy

I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean: I will cleanse you from all of your impurities and from all your idols. I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws. You will live in the land I gave your forefathers; you will be my people and I will be your God.

Ezekiel 36:25-28

You have been without joy for a long while, so long you cannot remember. It will not be like this forever. Actually, you are on the verge of starting a journey that will sanctify you, heal you, restore you, and bring you to joy. You are not going to like it, the beginning part. It is darker and more painful than you can fathom to endure, but the only way to the other side is to start at the beginning.

Jesus is coming for you. You have been running so long, so hard and you are past exhaustion, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. He sees you, although you do not see Him. He hears you, in your cry out prayers, although you do not yet hear Him. There are others praying for you as He lays you on their hearts, interrupting their thoughts with your needs.

In the darkness, which will seem to stretch forever, you will let go of any notion that you are in control, that you are self-sufficient. Your need of His constant presence will consume you. Without Him, you will not make it through. Fervently, you will search His word and knock on His door like a lost child looking for someone to care for her. You will find Him and He will be more than you thought He could be. He will care for you in ways you cannot now comprehend, or even think to ask.

He will ask you to give up many things. At first, you will not understand and you will be angry, as these things have given you comfort, have distracted you, and have been your security for so long. But you cannot keep them, for they are meant for your destruction and He intends to give you life. You will get better at letting go, as your eyes learn to focus on what is real and to look past what is not.

He will take you further than you can imagine, in places where the only out is to let Him in. He will do this again and again, each time rescuing you when you have come to the end of yourself. This is the most difficult but essential part of your journey. For only in this space will you learn that He is everything, in every situation, and that He will never leave you. Soon, you will recognize the pattern and know that He is bringing you to a new place. You will learn to endure these times, resting in His sovereignty and goodness, knowing the new place will bring you new life, new wisdom, strengthening you for another cycle.

He will tune your ears to discern His voice. You will learn to sit in absolute stillness, straining your ears, your heart and your soul to hear His holy voice. And He will speak to you in quiet whispers that bring everything else to absolute silence.

You will hold on to His promises as a treasure, learning that they are yours to keep, lifelines to another day. You will build a new life on the foundation that He who promises is faithful and able. As you begin to see, you will not believe how He has engineered your circumstances, bestowed upon you His favor, all before you ever even looked to Him.

You will sleep with His Word under your pillow, wake in the night to check and see if it is still there. It will become your source of strength, of hope, of direction, of joy. You will fall in love with His heroes, studying each one as an eager student who is learning for the first time that letters make words, words make books, and books tell stories.

Perseverance is no joke, endurance not to be taken lightly. This first part of the journey will require both, will require that you step in faith, if only at first as an act of desperation.

You will come through though. It will not be this painful, this dark forever. He would not take you, His child, this way if it was not absolutely necessary. For He loves you, a great deal. This will be what you cannot comprehend ever, but will soon depend on with all of your heart. When you cannot see Him, when you cannot feel His presence, you will know as you know the ground pushes against your feet, that He is present and that He loves you.

When the darkness breaks and your old self is but a memory, He will be your constant light. He will begin to put you back together in a new way, with new hope, new trust, new purpose and with much joy.

Warmest Regards,

This Side of Joy

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Dear Reader…If you find yourself where you never thought you would be, doing things you never thought you would do, and not wanting to be there, know that this Jesus is also for you. His promises are for you. He longs for you to find Him, to know Him and to trust Him. He longs for you to love Him. He has done the heavy lifting, He just asks that you seek Him.

Blessings and much hope for your journey, Amy