Do you see the new thing God is doing?
My friend eagerly extends her hand out, hovering over the bowl of chips and salsa at our table. I grasp her hand to gawk at the ring on her finger. I’m sure you can already picture this scene. You’ve seen enough Hallmark movies or maybe lived to tell this tale yourself: a newly engaged friend with her eyes sparkling more than the diamond she’s flashing on her finger. She can’t stop smiling, and you can’t stop smiling with her.
The joy overflowing from my friend is visible, but she doesn’t have a fairy tale life that led up to this moment. In fact, a year ago we weren’t sitting at a restaurant smiling, dreaming, and giggling. We were sitting in a counseling room, where she confessed her painful past and darkest secrets with tears and shame. That woman then is not the same woman in front of me now.
But God! Oh, but God! He rewrote her story. It is not my story to tell, but I had the most incredible blessing to walk alongside her this past year and watch the Spirit miraculously transform her from depression, despair, unforgiveness, and shame, to joy, hope, forgiveness, and freedom.
In between bites of tacos, my friend shares with me her proposal story and the wedding plans. Then she stops to give God praise. Thanksgiving had once been her favorite holiday growing up. Yet for the past six years, Thanksgiving and Christmas have been difficult to endure for her. The holiday season brings up triggers of memories bombarded with wrong choices, painful consequences, and an altered life to never be the same.
Oh, how I know from my own pain! Those triggers of old memories that suck the breath from your lungs. The panic that rises with no time to stop it. One moment you are laughing and the next you are sobbing because of how quickly it happens. The fear that cripples you. The searching for the exit door because you can’t stay in that place for a minute longer.
My friend dreaded these gut-wrenching feelings that came with this time of year. But now she tells me, “This has been so redeeming for me. My fiancé proposed the weekend of Thanksgiving. It’s like God has given me a new memory to replace the old ones.”
I can hear it in her voice…I can see it in her eyes…Hope.
Hope that her past doesn’t have to dictate her present and future. Hope that her life choices don’t have to leave her in despair and depression. Hope that God sees her, loves her, forgives her, and refuses to keep her in shame and bondage. Hope that He has purpose for her in spite of her failings and the failings of others. Hope that she can dream when she believed her life circumstances would never change.
God was speaking to my friend’s heart with His words…
“Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland.” (Isaiah 43:18-19, NIV)
For the past year, this woman and I dug deep into her soul. She processed her past, she searched her heart for idols of worship other than Jesus, she studied Scripture, she wrestled with forgiveness, she lamented, she repented, and then came those sweet, sweet words of surrender…“I am finally giving Him everything.”
The Lord has heard her cries, seen her pain, forgiven and forgot her sin…and now has said, “No more. I am doing a new thing! See Me! See what I have done and what I am going to do!”
God will not leave us in our pain and despair. He pulls us up to continue living again.
God will not turn away from our broken spirits of repentance. He draws near to mend and make whole.
God will not allow us to wear our shame. He clothed Jesus with our shame on the cross.
God will not ignore our grief over old memories of pain. He rewrites them with new memories of hope.
The ring on my friend’s finger was a beautiful symbol of newness to come. But as I listened and watched her, I forgot about the ring. What was more beautiful to me was witnessing a new person. The Spirit has made a way in her wilderness and a stream in her wasteland. And she has perceived it, giving Him glory and praise for the new life memories that are replacing the old.
This holiday season, I encourage you to see the new thing God is doing in your life. Maybe it’s time to stop dwelling on the past. Don’t hold on, but give everything to Him. Those old memories, places, people, and choices have no authority in Jesus to grip your soul anymore. He came to this earth to make a way and a stream for you by suffering through the wilderness and wasteland. Look for Him, and you will see a new thing spring up.
If you haven’t yet read my story on how the Lord made a way in the wilderness to do a new thing in my life, my book is now on sale through my store until Christmas.
