“Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ.” Philippians 3:8
Losses
Walk His Way Revisited
I had a close friend for many years. We worshiped, laughed, prayed, and held holiday parties together. We shared mutual friends, vacations, and recipes. We raised our kids together, through the good and bad. But when she lost someone dear to her, she gave up everything familiar and pursued a lifestyle foreign to me. I lost her friendship as surely as if she had died.
What have been the losses in your life? Something you were profoundly sorrowful over? Someone you grieved deeply for? A dream, perhaps, that will never be? A hope that has died? An image of who you thought you were?
We may lose our limbs to injury or disease. We lose spouses, and every single thing that defined us seems to have changed. We lose jobs, homes, children, lifestyles. We lose time by wasting it; we lose weight by dieting; we lose joy by worrying. We lose our voices, our minds, our teeth, our cell phone signal, and our keys.
We can lose our temper, lose our way, lose our virginity, lose our place, lose our health, lose our perspective, lose our savings, and lose our peace. We can lose our first love, and lose our life.
In all these things just mentioned, is there anything—anything at all—that can’t be considered worth it, if only to gain Christ?
Let me explain, because particularly in the case of losing a spouse, a child, or our health, this may seem like a bitter pill to swallow. Everything we lose can be an opportunity to know Jesus more intimately—to know Him as Comforter, as Healer, as Friend, as Husband, as Brother, as Advocate, as Prince of Peace, as Sovereign Lord, as Teacher, as Creator. Every loss can be counted as gain when we see His purposes in it, His tender compassion, His kind intentions toward us, His desire for our heart and mind to belong fully to Him, that He may live in us and bring the abundance and fullness of joy of knowing Him.
If we do not lose something, we do not experience lack.
Oh, dear ladies, I know this is a hard word for some of you. But He never fails in His purposes. If He has allowed loss in your life, please know that He seeks your whole heart. “…(God) has determined their preappointed times and the boundaries of their dwellings, so that they should seek the Lord, in the hope that they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us” (Acts 17:26b-27).
As for me, when I lost my friend, though I didn’t see it at the time, now I know for certain that He was freeing me from the many hours of my week I devoted to that friendship so I could pursue a new call from Him that would take a lot of time. Then, I felt only loss; now, I see the gain.
May you seek and find Him as you navigate your losses.
Lord, help us to see our losses not only as the endings they are, but also as beginnings in new steps to knowing You more intimately. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Hmmm….I love how the Lord brings comfort and confirmation in many ways as we go through our individual journeys with Him. Thank you.
Praise the Lord! So wonderfully put! Jesus Christ grows sweeter the more we think we’ve lost. Amen!
I try to remind myself that the Lord gives and the Lord takes away. In His faithfulness though, when things have been removed, He has never left just an empty void. He has ALWAYS filled that empty place with Himself—His presence, comfort, & peace. I think this is what’s meant by the term “blessed assurance.” It’s the knowledge that If we find ourselves with less, He Himself will be our more.