Courage

     Sometimes we need to have someone speak this over us in order to keep running our race.  Let's face it, we get so tired sometimes.  Disheartened.  Bumps in the road occur and we feel jostled around so much that we need a shot of courage to continue onward.

     With my kids finishing the school year, I've had to continually encourage them to finish strong.  They've been going strong since August 1st and have even undergone a life change half way through in the form of a move.  Change is not easy for anyone, but I have felt particularly compassionate toward my three champions who have had to start over in the middle of a school year.  New schools, new friends, new teachers, new home.  And I think they've handled it all better than I have!!

     The "new" can be challenging to us all, and I'm starting to understand it's because we are learning to trust God.  The old becomes comfortable and can seem easy to navigate because of it's familiarity.  The new is unknown territory that can make us wonder if we've made the right decisions.  Or if we have what it takes.  Sometimes we wonder if God understood that we liked the old, comfortably familiar place.  (God does know that, by the way.)

     When seasons change, we can be sure we will need someone to speak courage to our hearts.  Someone that will help us look at the positive.  Someone that will help us see that God is doing a new thing.  He's growing us, pruning us, blessing us, protecting us, and equipping us through the change.

     Courage means the ability to do something that frightens us, or strength when facing pain or grief.  To encourage, then, is to give support, confidence, or hope to someone.  We need to continually receive and give courage.  It's such a wonderful feeling, isn't it?  To have courage to do something you were intimidated by?  Or to encourage a friend to?

Then a woman who had suffered from a hemorrhage for twelve years came up behind Him and touched the fringe of His outer robe;  for she had been saying to herself, “If I only touch His outer robe, I will be healed.”  But Jesus turning and seeing her said, “Take courage, daughter; your [personal trust and confident] faith [in Me] has made you well.” And at once the woman was [completely] healed.  Matthew 9:20-22

      This passage has always blessed me.  This woman, after such long-suffering, had the courage to reach out and touch Jesus.  Somehow she knew she would be well if she could touch even a tassel of His robe.  And the fact that Jesus knew someone had touched Him specifically for healing!  With crowds of people pressing against Him as He walked, He knew someone received from Him in that moment.  In one account (Luke 8), it says Jesus asked who had touched Him, and she came forth "with fear and trembling" confessing she had been the one.  She courageously came forward to claim her healing and proclaim He had healed her.  His reaction?  He said, "take courage; your faith made you well."  And it was so.

     Whatever is before you now, dear heart, have courage.  Know that the Holy Spirit is alive in you and will help you.  Remember the saints that have gone before you and courageously stood up to their giants.  Remember Jesus is interceding for you and cheering you on. Remember that you have brothers and sisters in the faith that are with you.  Let your heart grab hold of a juicy piece of courage and go forward, believing that on the other side will be your healing…your victory.

Jesus, encourage our hearts to believe…to run the race…to dream…to love.  And when we grow weary, rally the troops and send someone to remind us who we are and to have courage to step out in faith.  To reach for You.  To believe our healing and our victory are within arm's length.  To believe You will be there when we reach for You, and You will look in our eyes and say, "Take courage, daughter."

Learning

If people can’t see what God is doing,

    they stumble all over themselves;

But when they attend to what he reveals,

    they are most blessed.  Proverbs 29:18 Msg

     The more I learn, the less I feel like I know.  I am continually aware of how much God wants to reveal of His word and ways, and yet always humbled by the fact that I still feel like a newborn babe when it comes to knowing His word.  Even when I’ve read a passage of scripture and feel I’m familiar with it, He reveals something new that I never thought of or recognized before.  And so I continue to remain a student at His feet.  My heart is tendered to Mary, who upon seeing Him after resurrection, cried out, “Rabboni!”.  Teacher!  

     My children are winding down another year of school and ready for the break.  They’ve been learning many new things all year, as well as expanding their knowledge of things they’ve learned in the past years.   It is the same with us as we study God’s word.  There is always more to learn and “see” with our spiritual eyes.  His Spirit is always at work to develop us and reveal truth to us.  

      When God chooses to reveal something to us, we are wise to embrace it, and we are wise to put it into action.  God wants us to succeed.  He reveals and teaches us to bless us and protect us.  In our finite understanding, we think we know what is best for our lives.  We think we have it all figured out - what we need, what we want, what we plan for our future...but God is the only One with infinite understanding because He is the One that created all things.  We should be careful to seek Him for guidance and His plans for us, aligning our desires and actions to His.  

Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God!  How unsearchable his judgments, and his paths beyond tracing out!  “Who has known the mind of the Lord?  Or who has been his counselor?”  “Who has ever given to God, that God should repay them?”  For from him and through him and for him are all things.  To him be the glory forever! Amen.  Romans 11:33-36

Father, I pray for a humble, teachable spirit within that thrives upon reading Your word and discovering Your truths. I pray You will activiate the same in my children.  I pray their eyes would be opened to Your truth and goodness.  I pray that as a family we would seek first Your kingdom and place You on the throne of our hearts.