God interferes with us a lot. He interferes with our inner diatribes; He interferes with our style of relating; He blocks the paths we wrongly think will lead to life. He interferes to bring us up short so that we might see where we are taking the wrong turn. He wants us to truly know Him and enjoy Him. He wants us to live lives that will lead us more deeply into His wonderful heart.

Oftentimes God’s interference feels painful, but we need to see the mercy and compassion in our Father’s eyes. We need to breathe and consider the possibility that God understands, that He’s not holding a whip to make us run faster or a ledger to keep track of our sins. No, He is holding out His arms to gather us in and invite us into deeper repentance and life. He interferes because He loves us, and He wants us to know who we are as people and who we are to Him. And that’s where the healing begins.

Here is the truth we must remember in the middle of this sometimes painful healing process: we matter to the heart of God. He hasn’t taken His eyes off us. He thinks of us constantly. He has hopes and dreams for us. God planned on us before He made the stars, and He planned on us being His. He planned on us sharing our lives with Him on this wild adventure. And His plans are good. Just like all the disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ who have gone before us and who surround us now, we are uniquely and wonderfully made, and the world needs us.

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