We will all face something today or tomorrow, next week or year or decade, that simply feels like it’s too much for us. When this happens to me I tend to eat chocolate in the pantry alone while I come up with a brilliant plan for how to make everything better. Yes, I’m just that spiritual.
In the past the strategy I’ve usually decided on can be summed up in six words: be good, do more, try harder. I convince myself that if I’m perfect and hustle enough and make things happen then somehow it will all turn out okay.
I went to sleep last night thinking this way. Sometime past midnight I woke up in the dark and these words came to my heart: “Not by might nor by my power but by my Spirit” (Zech. 4:6). Another translation says it this way, “You will not succeed by your own strength or by your own power. The power will come from my Spirit” (ICB).
{my graphics are free goodies for you}
When I looked up the verse this morning I noticed it ends this way: “says the Lord of heaven’s armies.” I’d been worried because I thought the battle was completely up to me. And all the while I had the Lord of heaven’s armies willing to fight on my behalf.
I don’t know what you’re facing right now. But I do know this: You don’t have to overcome it alone. The outcome doesn’t rest on our smarts or our strengths or even our circumstances. Our victory isn’t dependent on our virtue. It’s just really not about us at all.
It’s hard to have a bigger perspective when you’re eating chocolate by yourself in the pantry. But I see what I’m facing in a different way now. I am a beloved daughter of God. I am more than a conqueror. Nothing is too difficult for me because nothing is impossible for the God within me. He will do it.
The same is true for whatever you’re facing too.
God, we come to You with whatever we’re going through today. We thank You that we don’t have to face it alone. You are with us and for us. You surround us with Your love. You will take care of us. You will complete Your plans and purposes in our lives and in the lives of those we love. We choose not to rely on our strength or our own power but on Your Spirit. Amen.
XOXO
Holley
P.S. If you like this post you might love You’re Going to Be Okay. Here’s a free chapter.
*****
You’re invited to join the “Let’s Have Coffee” link up! Simply write a post that has the kind of encouragement you’d share with a friend over coffee and then add it here (the link up goes live at 5:30am CT every Wednesday). Don’t have a blog? You can still write an encouraging comment. If you’re reading this by email, go to holleygerth.com to see all the fun and join in too.
When you link up your post, take a moment to leave an encouraging comment on the one that’s linked up just before yours. Thanks, friends!
{Want to share a word of encouragement on Twitter? Click this link and then tweet!}
[inlinkz_linkup id=780847 mode=1]
