There is a startling line in the 1998 romantic film entitled Ever After, starring Drew Barrymore,
“By then, the truth of their romance had been reduced to a simple fairy tale.”
The tragedy of this statement grips me because I see it in my own story and in so many other stories of women I hear. Beloved, we were originally created for the most beautiful of Love Stories. Before the Enlightenment, the gospel had been understood and presented as it was in the Scriptures — a divine romance, but now that version of the Story has been stolen from us. Paul confirms this in 2 Corinthians 11:3:
“I am afraid that just as Eve was deceived by the serpent’s cunning, your minds may somehow be led astray from your sincere and pure devotion to Christ.”
Many years ago, after a severe bout with postpartum depression, I found myself so disillusioned and discouraged.
Intimacy with God had become activity for God.
Duty and obligation had replaced LOVE and devotion.
Instead of resting and abiding, I was striving and perfecting.
My relationship with Christ had become what I could achieve for Him, not what I had received from Him!
In my restlessness late one night during that time, I perused the bookshelf and noticed a title that immediately intrigued me, “The Sacred Romance: Drawing Closer to the Heart of God.” I began reading…and page after page, the words I read were like fresh, cold water to my thirsty, worn-out soul. This intense struggle I was living between being and doing was perfectly confirmed and explained.
Eldredge suggests there are two ways to deal with this hungering and thirsting. You either try harder and become more efficient and driven or you turn to addictions, affairs, or hobbies that distract you from what your heart is trying to tell you. That night began one of the hardest but most beautiful, transformative journeys of my entire life.
“I will give you the treasures of darkness and hidden wealth of secret places,
So that you may know that it is I, the LORD, the God of Israel, who calls you by name.”
(Is.45:3)
The Ever After Encounter is basically my journal of those treasures excavated in the darkness and how the Lord has healed my heart!
There is a reason you feel such an intense longing.
There is a reason you feel compelled to do rather than be.
There is a reason you struggle to believe what God says about you.
Your heart is trying to tell you something!
Learn more at our very first Ever After Encounter and learn how you can not only know but experience His extravagant love and freedom!
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