The Before and After

Before picture:

This is what the Lord says: “ ‘Your woundb is incurable, your injury beyond healing. 13 There is no one to plead your cause, no remedy for your sore, no healinge for you. ~Jeremiah 30:12-13

After picture:

But I will restore you to health and heal your wounds,’ declares the Lord, ‘because you are called an outcast, Zion for whom no one cares.~Jeremiah 30:11

In these two verses I see a before and after picture.  Before Christ, there was no hope.  No cure for the wounds that cut deep.  There was no remedy for the sores on my soul caused by sin, whether they be self inflected or the afflictions of living in a sinful world.  Either way I was lost.  I can see so vividly how I was stuck in the pit of despair and sadness.  I was an exile, an outcast from all that I knew.  I was a Christian.  I believed in God and what Jesus did on the cross.  Yet, I stood outside of my life looking at it crumble before my very eyes because my knowledge of Him was so elemental and my thinking limited.  Instead of running to Him.  I ran away from Him and to false gods seeking comfort that only He could bring.  How I functioned then is beyond, but I know that it was only by His grace.  

That was then, before a true relationship with Christ.  Before I truly began to receive the love that He has for me.  In  the after is restoration. Praise God for the after.  In the after  is redemption and hope.  I find it to be so amazing that many of the same afflictions are present, such as my struggle with bipolar disorder.  Yet, I no longer stand outside of myself, but rather with God at my side.  The after picture shows a balm of the Lord healing my wounds. What I can not do and man can not do, God does through the blood of His Son Jesus. 

In the after I can look beyond my present circumstances and know that a better day is coming.  I can get up when I am tired and weary because I know that I can go to God for strength.  In the after I run to Him.  I lay my head of in chest and receive comfort.  I hold on to His hand so that I can go in the right direction.  I remember that my part does not have to be my future and I rest in the present with the hope and assurance of His love.

Father, I thank You for the before and the after.  I thank You for your discipline and correction.  I thank You for the healing that only You can bring. I thank You for the hope that is You.  In Jesus name I pray. Amen