Why Redeeming Achor?

Many years ago, in my early 20s maybe, I was doing a study by a popular Bible teacher. I don’t remember what the study was, but I do remember that she briefly talked about a passage of scripture that immediately captured my heart…

“Therefore, behold, I will allure her,
and bring her into the wilderness,
and speak tenderly to her.
And there I will give her her vineyards
and make the Valley of Achor a door of hope.
And there she shall answer as in the days of her youth,
as at the time when she came out of the land of Egypt.”
Hosea 2:14-15

This is such a beautiful and moving description of how God heals His people! And I SO desperately long to feel God heal me in this way!

Imagine it… You’ve been hurt, broken, betrayed, beaten and bruised in more ways than you can count and you’re so locked up and trapped in your past that you’re barely functioning. You don’t know how to trust others, you can’t imagine trusting yourself or even liking yourself. You can’t even imagine a life without constant internal pain, chaos and confusion.

Then God…

He reaches down. He allures you, romances you, in such a pure and tender way, something you’ve never experienced before. Then He leads you out and away from the chaos of life. Away from the chains and the darkness. Away from all of the things that are trying to steal your attention and your sanity. To a place where it’s just you and Him and He has your complete and undivided attention.
He speaks tenderly to you, whispers of His unending and incomparable love. Words of healing, freedom and hope.

Just soak that in for a minute…

So beautiful… That’s not where He stops though!!!

Then He fills in all of the missing pieces. He restores everything you lost. He makes you WHOLE!

Now get this! Achor means Trouble… He turns your Valley of Trouble into a Door of Hope.
All Of It!!! As only He can do, He turns all of the trouble, pain and brokenness into something beautiful. He turns it into a picture of hope, for you and for everyone else around you.

It says “she shall answer as in the days of her youth.”
Youth speaks to me of innocence. Maybe you feel like you’ve never been innocent, like you’ve never known a time without pain and betrayal, like you’re innocence was stolen when you were too young to even remember… But don’t forget! He restores what you lost! He restores your innocence!

“as at the time when she came out of the land of Egypt.”
The Israelites were captive in Egypt for hundreds of years, many generations. When God brought them out of Egypt they were free! None of them at that point had ever known freedom even once in their lives. All they knew was captivity, but God made them free!

All of this! All of it is how He wants to heal you. How He wants to heal me. How He wants to REDEEM us.

Redeeming Achor.

This is what I want. This is what I long for. This is the journey He’s leading me on.

I have been in all those places I described before and I’m still in so many of them. I’ve been beaten, broken, bruised, abused, betrayed, lied to, gaslit and made to doubt myself and everything I’ve ever known, my innocence was stolen before I can remember. I had no safe place.
All of this is true, but something more important is also true.

God has been sooo sooo good to me! He has provided for me and blessed me in more ways than I ever thought possible. Without Him, I would not be here.

He IS healing me. He IS redeeming my story. Within that, He has also given me an incredible passion and opportunity. That of bringing Him glory through my story and through the healing journey He has me on right now.

The beauty and simplicity of these verses may make it sound easy, but trust me, I’m not in any way trying to say that it is.
It’s hard, painful, confusing, mind bending, discouraging, seemingly never-ending, and often debilitating work. It takes a toll on your mind, emotions, spirit, and body in sooo many utterly exhausting ways.

It’s HARD.

But it IS possible! Our Father made us a promise and all you have to do is put your faith in Him. He NEVER breaks His promises!

He has taught me and is teaching me so very many things that I can’t just keep inside. I need to share it. And that is why I’m here writing this blog right now.

Sometimes I’ll write posts that are meant to be inspiring and encouraging. Other times they may include more of the raw pain that I have and am experiencing. Still other times it may be things that I feel we, as the church, need to learn and do better on, especially concerning how we as believers approach survivors of sexual abuse and other traumas, all from my own personal perspective and experience.

For being here and reading this, I give a resounding “Thank You!”

If any of this has struck a chord with you then I am SO glad and would love hear about it!
If you’re curious about something or have a question then I’d love to hear that too!