ALL the Paths…

In my Kirby Mayhew mystery novel, The Wrong, Kirby is encouraged early one morning as he opens his Bible to Isaiah 43. He gets up from the small breakfast nook in his kitchen with renewed faith that God is doing a new thing in his life. He’s endured a long winter of the soul, but now spring is coming.

“See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland.” – Isaiah 43:19

Several chapters later and with a few more bangs and bruises, Kirby has this to say: “If God was doing a new thing, I wasn’t sure I liked it.”

Have you ever felt that way? Hopeful in the Lord, but then things don’t go as you planned?

I’m always glad for those times of refreshing that God sends my way, but some days are just downright hard. String a few of those tough days together and discouragement sets in. That’s where I’ve been lately. Hard days. Frustrated. Discouraged. Which makes me not so easy to be around.

Not good.

But just like Kirby, I kept showing up at that table with God, opening His word, not sure what I needed, but knowing I could only get it from Him.

Today is a new day!

I came across this verse in Psalms: “All the paths of the LORD are lovingkindness and truth to those who keep His covenant and His testimonies.” – Psalm 25:10

All the paths…not just some. But ALL. So on those days when the path is hard, tie this promise around your neck and take courage! If you love God and you’re walking in the light of His word, the hard path that you’re on is a path of lovingkindness and truth.

That was a game-changer for me. Now, when I start to feel discouraged, I meditate on these words and open my heart to experience God’s love. Right here. Right now. Even–and maybe especially–in the hard places.