Category: Encouragement

courage & bravery

“wait on the Lord;
be of good courage,
& He shall strengthen your heart;
wait, I say, on the Lord!”

– Psalm 27:14

would you agree that it takes equal amounts of strength and bravery to wait patiently for something as it does to “go and conquer”????

the bravery and courage required to trust in the Lord through seasons of waiting is often underestimated or undervalued.

you never know what prayers those around you are persistently praying.
what battles they are quietly fighting.
what wounds they carry.
what wars they silently wage.
what they wrestle against every morning just to put their feet on the ground.

Exodus 14:14 says: “The LORD will fight for you; you need only to be still.” Surrendering our battles (and their outcomes!) to the Lord is frequently the hardest part. The greatest victory comes when we hold our hands up in worship, proclaiming: “Lord! This is Your battle to fight! It’s not mine. I am going to trust You and obey Your command to be still.”

It takes true courage to be still while the battle rages on; a courage that only the Lord can give.

Never underestimate the bravery required to trust, wait, surrender, and be still.
Wait on Him and remain faithful where He has placed you today.

“Watch, 
stand fast in the faith,
be brave, 
be strong.
Let all that you do
be done with love.”

– 1 Corinthians 16:13-14

He sees, He knows



Psalm 31:

7 I will rejoice and be glad in Your steadfast love,
      because You have seen my affliction;
     You have known the distress of my soul . . .

14 I trust in You, O Lord;
     I say, “You are my God.”
15a  My times are in Your hand . . .

22b You heard the voice of my pleas for mercy
     when I cried to You for help.

24b Be strong, & let your heart take courage,
     all you who wait for the Lord!

I love Psalm 31; the whole chapter is so encouraging, but for the sake of this post I’ve only highlighted the verses above.

In verse 7 David proclaims that he will rejoice, NOT because God has delivered him OUT OF his affliction or his distress (although He is certainly able to!) — but because God has seen his affliction and God knows his distress. No matter what you are walking through, the suffering you quietly carry everyday, the pain you cannot ignore, the hurt you haven’t moved on from, or the questions you silently bear — we can take take heart knowing that: God sees. God knows. “You have seen my affliction; You have known the distress of my soul.” Just because He hasn’t responded like you expected doesn’t mean He is unaware. You are not alone in your pain. We can still rejoice in the midst of great suffering and uncertainty because His steadfast love will never change.

Then, there’s a simple prayer of faith in verses 14 & 15:

“I trust in You, O Lord,” I say,
“You are my God.
My times are in Your hand . . .”

In a recent message at church we talked about the prayer that Jesus prayed to His Father in the garden of Gethsemane: “Father, let this cup pass from Me — nevertheless, not My will but THY will be done.“ In our prayers we are frequently focused on what we want to change or what we want to pass. But, if we never come to the “nevertheless” in our prayer, we will never share Christ’s heart. Until we come to the place where we can sincerely pray: “not my will, but THY will be done,” we’ll never reach the place of trust and surrender, like David says “My times are in Your hand.”

We may never have an answer to the “why” He didn’t allow the cup to pass, stop the affliction or end the distress — but we can trust His heart.

I’ll never forget hearing a dear sister in Christ share about her husband’s sudden passing. She shared a quote from Spurgeon that read: “God is too good to be unkind and He is too wise to be mistaken. And when we cannot trace His hand, we must trust His heart.”

How many times have you walked though something & questioned: “God, do you see what is happening to me?!” “Why aren’t You answering or moving like I had asked?!” When the reality is, God has always been aware, He sees, and He knows — but He also doesn’t always respond how we expected. In the midst of the uncertainty we can trust His character — He is the same yesterday, today, and forever, and when we can’t determine what His hands are doing, we can trust His heart.

Then, in verse 22, David says: “You heard the voice of my pleas for mercy, when I cried to You for help.” When God’s response to our prayer is not as we expected, it’s not because He didn’t hear us, but because He has a greater purpose to fulfill that we are most likely unaware of. Sometimes all we can see is the loss, pain, hurt, and ache but this Psalm assures us that God hears our every cry. On this side of eternity we may never know how He is accomplishing a greater purpose through the pain, but He promises to give us the mercy we need to walk through the unexpected, and His mercies are new every morning.

Lastly, David declares: “Be strong, & let your heart take courage, all you who wait for the Lord!” I believe there will never be a point in our lives when we are not waiting for something. . . God knows the things we long and pray for but there have been times where the Lord has shown me that I am not waiting for HIM but for what HE can DO; there’s a big difference. At times it’s easy for the two to become blurred, especially when you’re waiting and praying for something this is good and something you believe He desires for you. But in this verse David encourages us to be strong and take courage. Why? Because waiting can cause us to grow weak and discouraged in our faith; but in the waiting we also learn that only God can fill the longing we have and only His living water can quench the thirst of our souls. I read this the other day & it was such an encouragement to my soul: “If we are so focused on what God isn’t doing — we will miss out on what He IS doing.” How true is that?! Don’t allow what God is not doing to make you miss out on all that He is doing!

As you wait, dear friend, don’t forget: God sees, He knows, He hears. Trust Him, surrender your future to Him, wait on Him today, and walk in the new mercies He has for you day-by-day. Be strong and take courage, He is near.

“Have you not known?
Have you not heard?
The everlasting God, the Lord,
The Creator of the ends of the earth,
Neither faints nor is weary.
His understanding is unsearchable.
He gives power to the weak,
And to those who have no might He increases strength.
Even the youths shall faint and be weary,
And the young men shall utterly fall,
But those who wait on 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 40:28-31

“Perhaps maybe for a
reason you cannot see,
God wants you to wait”

enter His rest.

9 ” There remains therefore a rest for the people of God. 
10  For he who has entered His rest has himself also ceased from his works as God did from His. “
– Hebrews 4:9-10

In Christ, we can echo the words He cried on the cross — “it is finished.” (John 19:30)

That phrase tells me that HE DID IT, so I don’t have to: He bought salvation for me. I could never earn it and now I can rest in His completed work.

I. Can. Rest.

We. Can. Rest.

Every world religion preaches: “Do!” “Earn!” “Work!” “Not enough!”
While God says: “Done.” “Finished.” “Paid.” “Forgiven.”

While I was destined to be lost in my sin, separated from Him forever, He paid the debt I owed, made a way, and rescued me when I was helpless to save myself.

I stood condemned and guilty, but Jesus took my place and died the death I deserved. There’s no better news than the gospel. It never gets old.

So, whatever we may suffer on this side of eternity; it pales in comparison with the glory of spending eternity with our Savior.

If God allowed His only beloved Son to suffer, how can we expect to live a life free of sorrow or pain?? While many celebrity “pastors” preach a message of “wealth, prosperity, health, & comfort” — one look at our precious Savior dying on a tree tells me that you can be in the center of God’s perfect will, walking in complete obedience and submission to Him…and suffer greatly. Hebrews 5:8-9 points out how Jesus obeyed His Father by going to the cross:

8 “Even though Jesus was God’s Son, He learned obedience from the things He suffered. 9 In this way, God qualified Him as a perfect High Priest, and He became the source of eternal salvation for all those who obey Him.” (NLT)

Christ’s death tells me that God is still working and writing a story of redemption in the most hopeless and darkest night. He is fully in control of the outcome, even when it’s different than we had imagined and we can trust that it’s always better than what we had in mind.

We have the promise that He will never leave or forsake us in our pain. (Hebrews 13:15)
You may feel lonely but you are never alone.
Rest in the finished work of the cross.
You no longer have to work for acceptance or approval.
Stop striving & comparing. Fighting for what He already died to give you.

“Peace I leave with you; My peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled & do not be afraid.” – John 14:27

As we start a new week, enter it resting & rejoicing in Jesus: knowing that He rose again & is alive in you. 

The work is finished.
And we are simply called to rest and walk in light of that glorious truth.

“There’s never season,
Never a place,
Where I am alone,
Where You don’t show Your face
Right here I remember
How could I forget?
Your faithfulness has never left me.

Where would I be without You?
Where would I be without Your love?
I’m amazing by all You have done.

Where would I be without You?
Where would I be without Your love?
I can’t say ‘Thank You!’ enough.”

– Where Would I Be (The Belonging Co.)

expectations



There’s a line I’ve heard in many contemporary worship songs that, in one way or another, repeats a phrase like:

“You’ve never failed me yet”
“You’ll never let me down”
“He’ll never fail me”
“You hold nothing back from me”

Are you familiar with that line??

And, while I believe wholeheartedly that those words are true, there have been times when I have questioned God’s purpose amidst suffering, have felt like He is withholding something, or have struggled to trust His timing. Times when I have asked: “God, where are You? What could You possibly be accomplishing through this?! You can change this, but why is nothing changing?!”

And in those times, when I hear a line like: “You’ve never failed me!” I feel myself cringe because in the moment my mind is telling me that God has failed because He’s not doing what I expected or asked Him to.

In those times I face the realization that God does not move or work according to my expectations. How could I expect Him to act to fulfill my expectations when His knowledge and understanding is so far above mine and His ways and His thoughts surpass mine? (Isaiah 55:8-9) My expectations are short-sighted but my God sees eternally: from the beginning to the end – so I can either allow my circumstance to create doubt, anxiety, and fear or I can view it as an opportunity to trust God’s plan to a greater degree, even when it doesn’t look how I had anticipated.

Proverbs 3:5-6 comes to my mind: “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding, but in all your ways acknowledge Him and HE WILL direct your path.”

When God isn’t answering the prayer like you had asked, when your circumstance grows worse, when the timeline of your life is not playing out like you’d hoped, when you lose someone close to you when you wanted them to stay, or when you find yourself wrestling with God’s purpose; we are faced with a choice: to walk in doubt or glorify Him amidst the uncertainty: knowing that HE is still on His throne and is in control. What comes as a surprise to me is not a surprise to Him. He already knew what was ahead, He is walking with me, and He was preparing me for this even before I knew I would be here.

When I think of unmet expectations I think of the story of Lazarus:
Lazarus’ sisters, Mary and Martha, ask Jesus to come because their brother is very sick, near death. Instead of leaving immediately, Jesus stays where He is for 2 more days. By the time Jesus arrives, Lazarus has been in the tomb for 4 days and Mary and Martha both make this statement: “Lord, if You had been here, our brother would not have died.” (John 11:32)

Oh I can relate to that — the feeling of abandonment and questioning Jesus’ presence because He didn’t come like I’d asked and didn’t prevent what I knew He could. “Lord, how could You allow this loss? If only…..” Our hearts are prone to ask these questions. But verse 5 of chapter 11 gives me great hope, it says: “now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus.” I love that the Holy Spirit wrote that in the beginning of the chapter because we could look at Jesus’ actions and label them as negligent or unloving — but Jesus wanted to erase any doubt in our minds that His delay was due to a lack of compassion. Because HE LOVED LAZARUS AND HIS SISTERS. The purpose of His delay was so He could increase their faith and work a greater miracle.

This story shows me that when Jesus isn’t showing up how we’d asked or anticipated His love for us has not changed and He is still in control. I can trust Him because He. never. fails.

I don’t know why the unthinkable happens when we’ve prayed over and over to be spared. But in the middle of the “not knowing” there is a lot of truth that God’s Word assures us of — Jesus does not forsake us for one moment in the middle of our suffering. If God allowed His very own Son to endure the most brutal and gruesome death (and that was His perfect plan for redemption and salvation!) then I cannot expect to avoid suffering. Jesus’ suffering reminds me that death is not the end and in God’s kingdom sometimes the most miraculous moments are coming to pass when it seems most dark and hopeless. Our pain is never wasted, He is accomplishing His perfect will in and thru us even when it comes about in a way we didn’t anticipate. My God has NEVER failed and He accomplishes everything He intends and purposes — 


It is my prayer that I would more quickly move from the place of confusion and doubt, to a place of praise and worship, able to sing: “HE WILL NEVER FAIL!” even when I cannot make sense of my surroundings. I can trust that His purposes are better than anything I could ask, think, or imagine – and I can sing before I know the outcome, because I know that He will be there walking with me through whatever the future holds.

“Oh, call — call upon the Name
Jesus Christ — the only Name that saves

For there is no one like our God
There’s no one like our God
There’s nothing that can stand against You
There’s no stronghold You can’t break
No life that You can’t save

Our God You never fail
Strong through every trial
Faithful through the night
Our God will never fail

Anchor through the flood
You keep holding on
I know You’ll never fail
Jesus You’ll never fail”




“Let those who suffer
according to God’s will
entrust their souls to a faithful Creator
while doing good”
– 1 Peter 4:19

“The counsel of the Lord stands forever,
the plans of His heart to all generations”
– Psalm 33:11