My goodness, when I get my word for the year, I have a mixture of excitement, but then also a little bit of apprehension as I wonder what is coming my way! Halfway through the year now, my word "hope" (Romans 15:13) is more relevant than ever. Between trying to figure out the best job path for me, where we should live, planning a wedding, and just normal everyday life things, there are a lot of unknowns and a lot on my plate. While wedding planning is going smoothly, sorting out all the details like where we are going to live when my job situation is uncertain, is a lot more challenging. God has been so faithful to keep me in a job with unexpected extensions, but having only short contracts for work is a challenging place to just sit in and trust God. This last week in particular, I have felt like I am stretched to capacity and desperately just want a solid plan that I can count on to at least get me through until next year. But the days continue to tick over with no more plans locked in than the previous one.
God is so good and so faithful though, and I really don't say this to be cliché or to pretend everything is okay. I burst into tears the other night eating dinner because I was just struggling so much with waiting so believe me, it's not easy to hold on some days. But God has kept interrupting my days with encouragements from so many directions and from so many parts of His word and so I wanted to share some of the verses that I have been clinging to this week that have helped me keep going when I wanted to just throw in the towel.
Philippians 1:6 - “Being confident of this, that He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.” God has taken me step by step through every piece of my study and work experience so far and I can be confident that He will continue to use me, grow me and lead the path for me if I keep trying my best to follow His guidance. He doesn't lead you halfway down a path, or 23 years into your life and just go "oh yeah, you can do the rest from here". He leads us every step, the small baby ones that are like tiptoeing through a forest, the big, challenging ones that are like jumping from stone to stone across a river, and the give way signs where sometimes God asks us to just hold tight for a minute. He is with us through it all and has the whole journey all mapped out to perfection.
John 14:15 - "And I will pray to the Father and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever." As I've felt 'stretched thin' this week, I've realized that I've been trying to trust and be patient in my own strength. I have been trying to take thoughts captive and declare my trust in Him hoping that by osmosis my words would soak into my heart. But I haven't really stopped to ask the Holy Spirit to give me the grace that I need to just be able to trust for today. I don't need to worry about trusting God tomorrow just yet, because I know when tomorrow comes, the Holy Spirit that is abiding in me always, will give me a new dose of grace to trust Him for that day.
A quote popped up on my facebook feed by Ann Voskamp that says “The worst case scenario is that all the very worst things happen, and I am still loved”, and it brought to mind one of my favourite little passages - Romans 8:37-39 “No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present not the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” I love this because it reminds me that even if my worst possible case scenario happens and everything falls apart, nothing, not one thing, can separate me from my Father’s love and care for me. It’s so reassuring that we can be “convinced” of God’s love and that He is always for us, and we are “more than conquerors” over our life situations and stresses, not because of anything that we can do, but through His love and grace.
I’m also reading a book called ‘Quiet” at the moment and it has been such a timely Godsend. It is all about the importance of a grace based quiet time with Jesus, practical ways to add time with Jesus into our every day, and how in all the ups and downs of life, time with God is what helps us, heals us and strengthens us. With all the stresses swirling around in my head at the moment, pressing into this area of my life of being ‘quiet’ with Him, has been such a lifeline. The other day I was feeling so discouraged and I wanted to just throw my computer across the room, but instead, I placed it down gently and replaced it with my journal and wrote out how I was feeling to God and drew closer to Him and my frustration started to diminish. Even though my human mind wanted to just block out thinking about it and distract myself with social media or Netflix, none of that actually fixes any of my stress, it just shelves it. My heart needed Jesus because only He can actually replace my worry with His peace. This is why it’s so important to build a habit of quiet time because in those moments where it almost seems too hard to keep dwelling on your situation, we need that discipline to kick in and get us into His word and on our knees about our situation so we can be refilled with His grace.
The other little phrase that God keeps giving to us through the people around us is “Give it to God”. It is sooo much easier said than done and to be honest, sometimes I feel a bit weary of how long this unsettled season is dragging out. But then the Holy Spirit brings the conviction of what God says about my weariness in Matthew 11:28 - “Come to Me all who are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest.” Feeling stretched very thin and definitely heavy laden with all the big life decisions around me, I am so grateful that God wants to take my heavy stress and replace it with His light peace. Psalm 23:3-4 says “He restores my soul; He leads me in the paths of righteousness for His name’s sake. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.” Just like water refreshes our body when we are thirsty, even though coffee or soft drink can be more appealing, time with Jesus is what our spiritual body needs, even though fun distractions can be tempting.
The very best thing I can do right now, is not try to cover all my bases and have a long list of plan A to plan Z, but is to be remember
God has got me this far and I can be confident that He will keep leading me,
The Holy Spirit abides in me and gives me the grace for all that is on my plate each day
No matter how life plays out, nothing can separate me from His love so everything will ultimately be okay
And the best thing I can do is to spend quiet time with Him because He will give me rest for my soul and restore my heart.
No matter what your current situation is or whatever stresses are on your mind at the moment, I hope that these verses and encouragements that have been helping me in my season right now, are an encouragement to you also. Lots of love always! Isabelle xo
Comentários