Make me live.

O Lord, by these things men live,

and in all these is the life of my spirit.

Oh restore me to health and make me live!

Behold, it was for my welfare

that I had great bitterness;

but in love you have delivered my life

from the pit of destruction,

for you have cast all my sins

behind your back.

Isaiah 38:16-17

The Lord has purposes for our good, even in our most profoundly painful experiences. And what tastes most bitter in our tears is turned sweeter than honey by Christ’s saving grace. God always has the welfare of His beloved in mind, even in our most difficult losses. And He can and will restore in love, delivering us from the worst we know in life’s downturns AND the worst things we do in our sin.

I have been in a season of fervent prayer, begging for deliverance that would lead me to know a comforting level of peace and security that I lost when death robbed me of a the best part of my daily life. My emotional, physical, and spiritual health shattered. But I can rejoice today for God has moved and made me live again! I see now that an intense season of suffering was used to trim me down, build me up, help me trust in real ways I never would have done, taught me to relate and to feel life anew, and through it all God has loved me well and led me to love well. And in a “needle in a haystack” sort of way, God has answered my prayers for restoration. Most importantly, God has shown me how much I should appreciate my true deliverance… not just from grief… but from the finality of the grave.

God, You have cast all my sins behind Your back and I am new in Christ! Jesus, You bore my sorrows so that I never sorrowed alone. And as my welfare has been restored, I rejoice! You wisely led me to thrive even as I felt dry and dying at times. That was a feeling but Your deliverance was the fact all along. You make me live! Hallelujah! Amen.