Have you assumed a surrendered life to God promises an easy life? Have you equated a life for Jesus as a comfortable life filled with all joy and no pain?

Last night, here at our BIG Life Missouri Lake Retreat, we gathered in the family room in our pajamas and we began sharing our stories. Random stories of “I’m a taxidermist, I hula hoop, I used to competitively drive mud trucks and I’m a homeless traveling gypsy. (One of those is me, the others are most certainly not.)

Then Emily shared. Emily is a stunning beautiful blonde who is well put together with a certain touch of class, yet air of your new best friend. She shared how 4 years ago, her 7 year old little boy died in a drowning accident. This unspeakable loss broke her and brought her to a place of such immense pain that she planned to end her own life. She simply couldn’t go on. BUT GOD.

But God has been healing her heart, renewing her spirit, and doing what only he can do … he’s been turning all this intended harm into a work of his goodness that saves many lives. Her testimony is one of faith and promise in the midst of unimaginable loss and grief. She showed us a Jesus that never leaves, with sufficient grace to cover our worst disappointments and disasters.

Emily reminded us a surrendered life to God never promises an easy life. Emily reminded us a life for Jesus does not equate comfort with all joy and no pain. However, that life, given to Jesus, does mean a hope beyond all hopes and a story that brings glory to God.

In the mental hospital as she was fighting for her own will to survive, she met a man who’s child had been murdered. In this man’s immense pain he had lost his faith in God. And this divine encounter, amidst the hardest of circumstances life could ever hand them, allowed Emily to illuminate the path for that hurting Dad’s way back to God.

My friends, maybe your life experience has fallen far short of how you thought it was supposed to be as a beloved daughter of the King. And maybe it’s time to surrender all of that to the only hands who can hold it for you, and let a relationship with God Almighty use all the intended harm in your life for something eternally good now.

As we study the book of Revelation together over the next several days and weeks, remember we are promised God’s blessings for reading, hearing and obeying what this book of the Bible reveals. This is the revealing of Jesus, our judge and our redeemer.

This often avoided last book in your Bible is written by John, and as we discussed yesterday, John personally knew Jesus. He walked this earth with Jesus … literally. John was in the boat on the night the waves were taking them under and Jesus came out walking on the waves, calming the storm. John was serving in the crowd of 5,000 men, plus women and children, who were miraculously feasting off only 5 loaves of bread and 2 fish. His feet were washed by Jesus. He was the one who knew without a doubt, Jesus loved him. It was John’s entire identity. I’m the one Jesus loves.

So, after 60 plus years of faithfully spreading the gospel, telling nothing but the truths of Jesus, and leading countless souls to salvation, you would assume he is greatly rewarded. Like in my mind, that kind of dedication deserves success. That kind of commitment deserves overflowing blessings and a place of honor. But instead, do you know where John is when he’s visited by this angel of God and told to write the words we read today in Revelation?

He’s in exile on the island of Patmos. I’m an island girl, but this is not the island you want to be on!

The island of Patmos is nothing but a harsh desolate rock covered in thorns where the unwanted were sent into banishment. And this is where John is. John – the one who’s complete identity is being loved by Jesus. The one who has faithfully served God his entire life. The one who was chosen, called, set apart, and devoted.

Banished.

Exiled.

Suffering.

Enduring.

How can that be? How is that fair? Where is God in this?

Let me tell you where God is in this … right there with him. And let me tell you what God is doing in this … he’s working!

Chapter 1, verse 9, “I, John, am your brother and your partner in suffering and in God’s Kingdom in the patient endurance to which Jesus calls us. I was exiled to the island of Patmos for preaching the word of God and for my testimony about Jesus.”

Now, verse 10, “It was the Lord’s Day, and I was worshiping in the Spirit.”

And that is the game changer! Even with all he was going through, even with the harshest of circumstances and the most undeserving of realities, John is sitting in the thorns, worshiping God.

What are your thorns? What surrounds you and causes you pain? Is it that unimaginable loss you have endured? Is it that divorce you never imagined? Is it that agonizing wait and uncertainty? Is it the past you can’t seem to forget? Is it that loneliness? Is it that sheer disappointment from a reality that you feel you don’t deserve? Is it the daily grind that’s sucking the life out of you?

You have a choice here, and this choice will make all the difference in the world for you.

You face this with God, or without God.

You draw closer to God in relationship, or you push him away.

You wonder about all the questions you can’t get answers for, or you worship him in the midst of those questions.

I’ve found this to be true: When you take 1 step towards God, he takes a thousand steps towards you. He personally attends to you. He heals you. He strengthens you. He equips you, then he uses your story to bring him glory. James 4:8, “Come close to God, and God will come close to you.”

John is sitting in his undeserved exile, banished to the harshest of living conditions amongst thorns, and he is making a choice. A choice to come close to God. A choice to worship. And his choice to come close to God has God moving in close to him.

And right here, in this choice of coming in close to God and worshiping in the middle of his undeserved thorns, comes a loud voice like a trumpet blast with a message from God. And that voice revealed Jesus. That revealing is our book of Revelation. Our promised blessing from reading, hearing and obeying today.

Because John made his choice to lean into God when his life got harder, because he chose to still worship when his obedience was repaid with suffering, God leaned into him, pulled him in close, and used his thorns for divine and eternal blessings for us today.

Emily, the beautiful mother who lost her 7 year old son in a river, is now a blessing to countless people because she has chosen to lean into God.

Have you ever heard of Nick Vujicic? Nick was born with no arms and no legs. He’s simply a torso and a head. His testimony forever changed me. 20 years ago, I heard him say, “If you don’t receive the miracle you are hoping for, you can become a miracle for someone else.” He’s never been able to give another human being legs or arms they weren’t born with, but he’s been able to give hope for a life of purpose even without them.

I pray you get your miracle. I pray you are blown away by the sweetest supply of God’s divine healing, restoration and provision. I pray today is the beginning of a radical change. But even more importantly, I pray if you don’t receive your miracle, you make the choice to lean into God and worship him. It’s a choice, and that choice will supernaturally strengthen you and direct you in becoming a miracle for someone else.

How can you lean into God today? How can you make the choice to pursue a relationship with him? How can you worship him on your harsh rock in your undeserved thorns? God’s already on his way to you at this moment. He’s here for this. He’s here for you. And somehow, someway, you will find your way and you will be a miracle worker in his hands.

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