“In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.” (1 John 4:10)

Listen.

Do you hear the knocking? Someone stands at the door of your heart.

It’s the sound of Jesus, calling you to Himself.

He is the divine Lover.

And He has a call for your life.

He wants to rescue you from sin, from death, and from Hell. He promises a future in Heaven. And while you wait and trust, a call.

Tell them of His love.

The last two months have been hard for me, physically, as I felt like I was retracing steps. I had symptoms reappear and my Lyme disease “came back out of hiding.” Emotionally I was tired, and spiritually, I felt attacked.

I didn’t post on Wild Rose Journal, honestly because I was more in need of encouragement than able to encourage. My heart was a dry well, and my rope was too short to scrape the bottom.

I was talking with a dear girl the other day. I mentioned my call to serve hurting hearts, although recently I had rather balked at it. She asked if it wouldn’t it be lonely to serve hurting hearts and depressing to continually share about my own hurt.

To be honest, yes, yes it is. My words can never heal the hurt, and from talking to some of you, trying to offer a little encouragement, I constantly wonder if a girl you have never met on the Internet could possibly hope to help you.

Yet it’s not about me, and it never has been.

I never have had anything to give.

If it was up to me, I never would have started Wild Rose Journal.

God put a message on my soul. He is the one with the good news to proclaim. I am simply a messenger.

God is near to the brokenhearted (Psalm 34:18). I want to go where hearts hurt deeply, because that’s where Jesus went (Luke 5:32, Mark 2:17). It isn’t miserable. Because… Jesus is here.

I love you, yes you, reader, because HE loves you. And I love Him because not only did He save me from sin, but He has loved me at my worst (Romans 5:8).

The gospel changes the depression narrative. You’re not on your own anymore. The Lord cares. He is crying with you. And one day, He will destroy everything that hurt you.

I don’t know the why. And maybe I never will. But I’ve accepted that it’s okay.

I don’t have to have all the answers. I don’t have to-can’t-be wholly there for you. If we’re honest, reading someone’s blog will never be the same as truly being in your life.

But I hope at least something I write will bless you. I hope you can read these posts as I search for what God is telling us, and then take the good to heart and leave the chaff.

If you’re new around the Wild Rose Journal, welcome. I’m a girl with Lyme disease and mold toxicity who has lost her home and many of her friends, but I don’t want to pull culture’s “victim” card-instead I want to use the “comfort I have been given” to comfort others (2 Corinthians 1:3-5). That’s the purpose of this blog, and if I can offer some Scripture and thoughts which have comforted me to just one person, then it will have been worth it.

I have decided to try and post weekly again. I need to express what I am learning and share it, and even if the posts aren’t perfect, I pray God will use it.

So I have a question for you-how has God comforted your pain? Let’s praise Him for the encouragement He has given us.