“Praise the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits---who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit and crowns you with love and compassion, who satisfies your desires with good things so that your youth is renewed like the eagles.” Ps. 103:2-5
Ever felt overwhelmed, exhausted, emotionally and physically spent? All of us have had these kinds of days, weeks, and seasons. The question is, what to do when we find ourselves in one of these compromised states?
The correct Sunday school answer is JESUS. ~~ A simplistic answer, but nonetheless 100% true if we choose to draw our strength from His Spirit within…”To this end I labor, struggling with all His energy, which so powerfully works in me.” Col. 1:29, and “…to Him who is able to do immeasurably more that all we ask or imagine, according to His power that is at work within us” Eph. 3:20.
Recently, Shaun and I (both of us) had reached a point of utter exhaustion…completely inundated with challenges of this current season of life. The details of our challenges are incidental, the point is, is that our God met us in our depleted state…just as He promises to do with each one of His kids. He met us IN this depleted state, guided our thoughts and steps through the ‘heat of battle’, then when He saw we were at a breaking point, in His sovereignty, chose to provide us with refreshment.
Now some of you are thinking, “Yeah, that’s great for you, but you do not understand my pain nor can you begin to comprehend the circumstances I’m in, the jerk I’m dealing with, the addiction that has gripped me, the death of someone very close…”
And you are right, we don’t…but God does. End of discussion.
Each of us has to choose to believe God and implement what He is telling us. The situation(s) may not change, but our individual perspectives regarding the situation(s) are completely altered. “For the eyes of the Lord range throughout the earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to Him.” 2 Chr. 16:9
~~ Where are our hearts committed? To our challenging circumstances? To the jerk in our lives? OR to the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, Jesus Christ our Savior?
Echoing Paul in Eph. 1:18-19a, we pray “the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which He has called you, the riches of His glorious inheritance in the saints, and His incomparably great power for us who believe.” He is coming soon.
In His amazing love,
Shaun and Betsy
