Come, Return - Encouragement Café - Feb. 21, 2014

Come, Return

Café Menu for Friday, February 21, 2014

Today’s Special is:  Wounds Healed

Carefully prepared just for you by your friend, Luann Prater

Main Ingredient: 

Come, let us return to the LORD.  He has torn us to pieces but he will heal us; he has injured us but he will bind up our wounds.

– Hosea 6:1 NIV

Entrée:

Divorce stinks.  It does.  I know this because I’ve experienced it more than once!  Yes, I’m one of ‘those’ women.  This is why I know God put the story of the woman at the well in the 4th chapter of John, just for me to find!  He wanted me to discover it with fresh eyes one day when I was at the very end of my rope.

It’s not easy for a self-reliant, in-control girl to admit she is tapped out.  Maybe you can relate.  Maybe you haven’t been divorced but you’re struggling with being torn to pieces in other ways.  Life rips and tears at our soul.

This may be a shocker news flash for you, but God allows pain into our lives.  Yes, He does.  His nudges are His whispers, but pain is His megaphone.  Sometimes it takes losing everything else in our life to see that there is only One true thing we can count on.

When our time and energy is spent on everything else and we push God aside to focus on our job, our mate, our children, our ministry or ourselves, He may get out the megaphone of pain and allow us to be injured.  He has to get our attention and if you’re anything like me, sometimes I’m so driven that it takes a bullhorn to alert me to danger.

Today, He is saying, “Hey, over here!  Shift your gaze to Me.  Look up and find that when you return to Me, I will bind up everything that hurts.”

Take Out:

Write down a list of all the things that take your attention.  Number them in priority.  See where God fits in that very real picture.  Then ask Him to reorder your list.

Dessert:

Lord Jesus, we come to You ready for healing.  Forgive us for putting other things/gods before You.  Bind up our wounds and make us whole, we pray in Jesus’ Name, Amen.

© 2011 by Luann Prater.  All rights reserved.

Do you know Jesus Christ as your personal Savior?  Pull up a chair… He’s been waiting for you.

Need a refill?  Please join us at the Encouragement Café with Luann and Friends. 

The conversation at the Café is always hot and fresh.  We invite you to listen in as Luann and Friends gather around the table to discuss everyday life. 

Comfort food for your soul is always on our menu, and friends are always close enough to hug.  We invite you to join us daily, as our writer’s share how the Lord continues to transform them into His glorious image. 

Still craving more…Join us as we grow together in grace and truth through our online bible study.

For more from Christine Wyrtzen and Jaime Wyrtzen Lauze, please visit www.daughtersofpromise.org