This past Sunday, I shared a devo in a service at my church, so I thought I'd share it with you too. Kind of fits in with yesterday's post.
About a year before my desert began I received a letter from my sister, Lori. The very last line of the letter said "You are stronger than you know." I had no idea why she put that in the letter, but when the gut-wrenching days of the desert began, those words came to my mind.
It was right about that time I happened upon these words from Lamentations 3:
I cry out, "My splendor is gone! Everything I had hoped for from the Lord is lost!" The thought of my suffering and homelessness is bitter beyond words. I will never forget this awful time, as I grieve over my loss. Yet I still dare to hope when I remember this. The faithful love of the Lord never ends! His mercies never cease. Great is his faithfulness; his mercies begin afresh each morning. I say to myself, "The Lord is my inheritance; therefore I will hope in him!"
Some days I would pace through the living room of my house and through tears and gritted teeth, I would recite those verses, hoping they would conjure up strength beyond what I felt.
In those days, I learned that Lori was right. I really did have strength beyond what I knew. And more than that...I learned that God's strength could saturate me in ways I never fathomed.
Last week, I walked through my yard and saw these:
Bleeding hearts. (Appropriate, no?)I tried to kill this plant...on purpose. I cut it down, I spread one of those weed suppressor blankets over it. I put rocks on top of that. The plant did not fit in with my vision for that area of the yard and I was determined to make it die.
And the next year, that plant shot up through the weed blanket, through the rocks, and it bloomed. And it's bloomed every year since.
It was stronger than I knew. Despite the crushing...it was not consumed.
Much like my life.
Much like your life.
Life crushing in on you? Are you pacing around praying through gritted teeth - or not even praying at all?
You're stronger than you know. HE is stronger than you. You are not consumed. His mercies are new. Wait in Him.
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