When/Then

Four years ago, our family lost our home to foreclosure.  My husband had been laid off and had several medical emergencies.  I thought losing our home was the end of my world.  This was our dream house; it was our first home we had bought.  This house was my only focus. I believed the world I needed this home to be successful, worthy, and satisfied. I felt like such a failure.  I was losing my home, my marriage wasn't that great, and there were many other things in my life crashing around me. I was empty. I lived in fear that people would find out. Until one day at one of Jacob's games we met a pastor and his wife and they invited us to their church.  I had been saved as a teenager, but as an adult I had turned my back on God. I wasn't in church and I definitely wasn't in the Word!  We went to church and God gave us our sight back.  He met me where I was with unfailing love, mercy, and grace. He filled up my heart and soul. I rededicated my life to Him and my family got baptized! But sometimes this dark time comes back to me where I have feelings of doubt, failure, and shame.

But WHEN I feel this emptiness that I'm tempted to fill with negative thoughts other than God, THEN I will thank Him for replacing that emptiness with His priceless, unfailing love, and remember He alone will take care of me and supply all my needs from his glorious riches, which have been given to us in Christ Jesus. I will stand strong in faith that through Christ I am achieving an eternal glory that far outweighs any temporary earthly home.
(Psalms 36:7, Philippians 4:19, 2 Corinthians 4:17-18)