Encouraging weary women to hope in Christ alone
I loved being a guest on the Women Encouraged podcast this week. I always enjoy listening to their gospel-centered discussions with guests. In this episode, we chatted about principles and practical ways to support a friend who is suffering. I hope you’ll check it out, listen, and subscribe!
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I’m a mostly boring person, and I don’t push the envelope very often. But occasionally, I let my gas gauge get down to E and create some excitement.
Once I let my engine run on a cold day while I waited for my kids to finish piano lessons. (See how exciting our life is?) I finally realized the little display on my dashboard was trying to tell me I only had five miles to go until empty. I immediately turned off the car and pulled out my phone to search for the nearest gas station. Two miles away. No problem.
But when the kids piled in and I started driving, the miles on the fuel range display ticked down more quickly than I expected. My kids and I prayed anxiously until we slid into the gas station with a zero on the display.
Do you feel like you’re running on empty today? I’ve got good news for you! The God of hope will fill you with joy, peace, and hope that overflows.
“May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.” (Romans 15:13, NIV)
This overflowing hope is more than you could ever need. It never runs out. You’re not just driving around with your gas gauge on full, there is gas gushing out of your car!
This hope is overflowing because its source is our infinite God of hope. He is the source of our hope, and our hope is in Him. This overflowing hope comes by the power of the Holy Spirit who dwells in us.
When we face circumstances that look hopeless, we can continue to be hopeful. The God of hope promises to fill His children with more than enough hope for all our struggles and suffering.
No matter what you face this week, God will fill you with overflowing hope.
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Did you know that I often write what I need to hear? I found this No Matter What Monday devotional from April 2016–I’d written what I needed to hear then, and I need to hear it again now. Maybe you do, too? So this week, here’s a flashback post to encourage us to rely on the Lord’s strength again.
It’s one of those times of the year. The end of the school year ranks high on my list of busy times of year, right up there with Christmas and back-to-school. I feel like there’s a runaway train barreling down the tracks toward the last day of school, and I’m hanging onto the back for dear life. I’ve got two hands gripping the back of the train and both feet flying up in the air behind me, just hoping we can make it to the end of the track without some unknown danger around the corner knocking me loose from this roaring engine.
In other words, I’m overwhelmed and exhausted. Anyone else?
Maybe you’ve got little ones who wear you out each day by 8:30 a.m. and you wonder how soon is too soon to start texting your husband to ask when he’ll be home.
Maybe you’re caring for an aging parent or pouring yourself out all day into a demanding job, and then heading home to face another long list of responsibilities.
Maybe your exhaustion stems from an ongoing struggle to parent a challenging child, cope with illness, or grieve a loss.
On weary days, I love this promise from Isaiah 40:30-31:
“Even youths shall faint and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted; but they who wait for the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.”
Isaiah gets me. He knows we all have those tired days – even the young ones get worn out, he says.
But they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength. The Lord’s strength is a sufficient, sustaining, satisfying strength. Rather than holding on for dear life, I can fly through these challenges like as soaring eagle because I’m sustained by the Lord.
No matter what we face this week, the Lord can be trusted to renew our strength as we rest in Him.
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A few years ago, I was talking with a friend about one of the many ways I think the internet is disconnecting us from each other, not just connecting us. Before Google, if I needed to know how to poach an egg or house-train a puppy or get olive oil out of my favorite sweater, I would call my mom or a friend. Now those phone calls don’t happen because we have all the answers at our fingertips.
So the next week, when my son threw up on the loveseat in our living room, I decided to call my mom to ask how to clean it rather than typing the question into an impersonal search engine. I explained my predicament and asked her what I should do. The first words out of her mouth were, “Have you Googled it?”
I’m thankful for my helpful mom, knowledgeable friends, and of course, Google. But I’m even more thankful for the One we can turn to for help in any and every problem we face.
“God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear though the earth gives way, though the mountains be moved into the heart of the sea” (Psalm 46:1-2)
God is our refuge. He provides safety because He loves us and reigns over any circumstance, any power, or any person that would threaten us. As Paul says in Romans 8, nothing in this world can separate us from God’s love for us in Christ.
God is our strength. The One who created the heavens and the earth is your helper (Ps. 121:1-2). He placed in stars in the sky and the fish in the ocean depths, and He promises to give you His strength when you’re weak.
God is always present in our suffering. This is why the psalmist can say: “Therefore we will not fear . . .” We can face our troubles with confidence that the Lord is with us. He’s not just a passive, uninterested bystander. He is our heavenly Father, our refuge, and our strength.
No matter what you face this week, God is an ever-present help in trouble.
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