Not All Loss is Bad

Greetings to my godly sister saints!
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I hope you are all striving on, holding fast to our Saviour and the precious promises of our Father in Heaven.  
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We've had a lot of storms in our life lately, of which have tested me greatly.  I told brother James and sisters that it felt like my heart had gone through a meat grinder.  A sister said that God can use such hearts cuz they love Him and He can heal them too.  And He can sisters, I'm living proof of it.  I've shared here and there on my FB posts (which I use to post daily thoughts and such instead of putting them in these posts) but I thought I'd share some of what I've learned here and that is 'Not All Loss is Bad'. 

Through our walk with the Lord we lost almost all our family except a few of our 5 children (who were grown and gone when we were born again) and as of today we have 1 that speaks to us.  So just in the past few days I have received hatred from my daughter of whom I never thought would act as wicked as she did (because of who we are in Christ) and my mom died denying us visiting her (because of who we are in Christ).  Then more hatred from that same daughter in a more wicked way than before AND we lost connection 3 of our grandchildren in the midst of it all. (I was there for the birth of one of them and we used to be very close to them all.)
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I won't lie, I was pretty torn up over it all but working hard to allow the Lord to purge me of what should not be in my life.  He knows best and if something needs to go, I need to work WITH Him to remove it, not fight AGAINST Him. 

In our mind we can be thinking "How will they know or see the truth if I can't share it with them. If I can't be an influence in their lives?"  But we have to realize that God is bigger than us and they are in better hands of Him than ours.  And quite honestly sisters, I'm going to be brutally honest here....He knows who will serve Him and who won't, and based on the fact that FEW will find it, it's highly likely that my daughter, grandchildren and family may never serve Him and will be His enemies until they die. (I'm not saying they will be, I'm saying the chances are there.)  And be prepared, yours may very well be also. 

​They are not of God, they are of the world. Yes we to love our neighbor, which would include such people, and I still love them, but I love God more and am willing to let them go so I can continue to serve Him.  He knows all and sees all and obviously that wickedness in them has been there for a time (such things don't happen overnight) and God loved me enough to put me through the fires to purge me of what needn't be in my life.  If God is taking someone out of your life, don't cling to them or they may take you away from the Lord, cling to Him and allow them to go and the Lord's will be done.

I've been pondering this...

Then Peter took him, and began to rebuke him, saying, Be it far from thee, Lord: this shall not be unto thee.  But he turned, and said unto Peter, Get thee behind me, Satan: thou art an offence unto me: for thou savourest not the things that be of God, but those that be of men. Matthew 16:22-23 

Peter wanted what sounded right to man, but not God's will.  We can have a tendency to do that also, not allowing God to do His will unto us because a different way sounds better to us (meaning our flesh is in the way). 
It also makes me think of Job, of which I ponder a lot in the midst of trials. 

Gird up now thy loins like a man; for I will demand of thee, and answer thou me. Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth? declare, if thou hast understanding. 
Job 38:3-4 
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We better not be questioning God when we go through such situations, at least I don't want to because that answer might be demanded of me.  And so we need to be willing to go through the fires that God has set before us so he can purge what shouldn't be there, that loss is not bad, it's good.  Because God is good and all things He does is good.  

There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death. Proverbs 14:12 
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And this sisters, remember this:

Another thing to think of is that we may moan about the loss of loved ones because we are who we are in Christ but then we need to think deeper and ponder these things:

Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness' sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake. Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you.  

Matthew 5:10-12 
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That's exactly what happened to me, so I am commanded to rejoice and see that such loss is a good thing, and that my Father loved me enough to take care of that. I'm blessed...and so are you if you work with the Father in such situations and not cling to that which we shouldn't.  

I want to do a post about how we can work with God in such situations instead of fighting against (in our flesh of course because our Spirit wants to be in alignment with God, it's the flesh that's weak.)  Anyway, that's where I'll leave it for now and maybe that's encouraged some of you. (And this post holds me accountable and is a good reference of that for me in the future as more trials come up.)

Hold fast sisters and keep looking to the Lord.
Fervent godly love to you all,
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Sister Deb with Brother James
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