We often wait until things are spinning out of control before we will sit long enough to bravely process our pain. But healing needs to happen at the heart of the wound for us to find freedom.

Our dreams and desires aren’t always what is best for us, and God knows this.

It’s easy to worship when life is good, but it takes grit to go to Him in the depth of depression when your heart is overwhelmed with grief. But what I found is when I bring God my praise in the wilderness, his presence becomes my greatest peace.

There’s a tension we hold between the hurt and the healing, between the sorrow and the joy, which leads to a longing for restoration, for life to be good again, and for the assurance that joy is possible.

It’s a whole lot easier to trust God when our future seems clear and predictable than when we’re navigating a life we didn’t expect. I have found that the more I surrender my worries daily to God, the more I trust Him, because worry and trust can’t occupy the same space within us - one always overtakes the other.

I needed to invite God into my world and give him the sacred space to reshape my identity. He lovingly led me into the pages of his word, where I found myself written all over his story.

The practice of looking for God’s goodness makes us more aware of what God is doing in our lives. Instead of looking at all that is going wrong, I’ve found joy in looking out for the traces of God. This is necessary to our healing. The connection of us seeing God at work in our lives reminds us of his deep love for us, anchors us to him, and restores our trust in him.