In my early teen years, I remember when I didn’t think life was worth living anymore. I was aching and I didn’t know how to express the depth of the pain. I contemplated what life would be like if I just ended it.

I grew up in church – in fact, I was at church just about every day of the week (seriously). Yet, I struggled to understand why the great God that I was taught about would allow me to experience so much pain. One day, after crying for days and weeks, I said, “God I know about what my mom and grandmother talk about. I hear what they say in church about you, but if you’re really real, prove yourself to me.” It didn’t happen overnight, but one day I went to church and asked for prayer. During that moment, what felt like the warmest, loving hands came upon me, and at the moment I knew God was in fact real. In that moment, the weight of the pain lifted and I sobbed for what must’ve been an hour at the front of the church. No one knew why I was crying but I did – I had just experienced the touch of my loving, heavenly Father.

He alone has the ability to heal our brokenness in a way no one else can, and He can be trusted to never reject us, shame us, or belittle us for what you’ve been through or what we’ve done. In fact, He loves to respond to our hurts and pain – Psalms 147:3 says that “He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds.”  When you cry out to God, He will answer. He will answer in ways you cannot anticipate, but they will be real and life-changing.