torn to pieces

Opening Prayer: Help us to trust you, O Lord, when life is hard and we feel like we are being torn to pieces.  Help us to trust that, even in the chaos and brokenness, you are doing a good work in and through us.  Help us to trust your heart, even when we can’t see your hand.  Amen.

Scripture: Hosea 6:1-3

Journal: How has God torn you to pieces, so that he might heal you?  How has he injured you, so that he might bind up your wounds?  How is he reviving and restoring you?  How is that helping you to live more and more in his presence? 

Reflection: If you are looking for easy, then life with God is probably not for you.  God is never, it seems, about easy, or convenient or comfortable, for that matter.  God’s heart for us is so good and so loving that he will not let us settle for less than who he made us to be.  In fact, he will stop at nothing to make us exactly who and what he had in mind before the foundations of the world, even if it involves some tearing and injuring.  His deepest desire is that we would live our lives in his presence.  Thus, he might tear us to pieces, so that he can heal us; and he might injure us, so that he can bind up our wounds.  Because somehow, mysteriously, through that process of tearing and healing and injuring and binding us up, he is working to revive and restore us.  Which means that life with God is not for the faint of heart, but it is for those who want to be whole and alive and free.  For those who want to be congruent with his creation intent.

Prayer

Closing Prayer: Thank you, O Lord, that your heart for us is good.  Thank you that we can always trust that you are working good in us, no matter what happens.  Revive us and restore us, O Lord, no matter what it takes.  Help us to live every minute of our lives aware of your peace and your presence.  Amen.