Day 109: Help Me Maintain

Psalms 119:28

My soul is weary with sorrow; strengthen me according to your word.

Today’s devo is inspired by a very honest and beautiful song. The song is called “Maintain” by Jonathan McReynolds and it speaks about needing God and maintaining this life, and wanting to be where He is. My favorite lyric from this song is,  “Yeah you gave me all the weapons but it’s still a fight.” What a profound statement, and how honest it is, that God has given us everything we need to fight the battles we face, but none the less there is still a fight. There are things that we face daily there are battles we have to fight, and they are not the easiest things to go through.  

There are a few quick points to make today.

1. As Christians other people and even sometimes ourselves, we forget that we are human.

Meaning we forget that sometimes we will be weak sometimes we will not want to fight, sometimes we will doubt and that is okay, we are human. We wouldn’t be human is we didn’t have these doubts. It is in those doubts that God will show us just how faithful he is, my friend annisstar told me that. I think we often afraid to show our real feelings  out of fear that we are sinning by having them. The truth is sometimes life is hard and we would rather not deal with it. Sometimes we just want to walk away, sometimes we get tired. We are human, but it is in these moments that we are reminded exactly who it is we serve. We serve a mighty and magnificent God and He won’t leave or forsake us.

2.  We have to fight for what we want.

Some of us have to fight with everything we have, we are fighting day by day just to live, or get up in the morning. We know that God has given us everything we need to fight, we put on the full armour of God, we are equipped with His strength, and reminded of His faithfulness. Yet there is still a fight, we still have to go out and fight. We are fighting for our sanity, our salvation, our relationship with God, our faith. We are fighting everyday to keep our faith. I believe that everyone can agree that sometimes we get tired of fighting, there are moments when we just want to stop. And if I’m being completely honest there are moments when we don’t see the use of fighting anymore. We have faith, and we know God is right there in our corner, hydrating us and strengthening us, but we still have to fight. Even when we’re tired of all the blows, even when we get knocked down we have to get up and keep swinging. We have to fight until we can’t fight anymore and even then God gives us enough strength for one last swing.

Imagine God as our boxing coach, He is our corner, He is strengthening us after every round making sure we are okay to keep fighting. He’s giving us water and healing for the bruises and wounds, and he’s constantly pouring into us. Whenever we open our mouths He’s there with water to hydrate us. The only thing He asks is that we keep fighting. Even when we feel we are losing, keep fighting. Don’t give up, keep those hands up, stand up and fight. Because we are fighting for so much more than a win. We’re fighting for our lives.

Now let me get real honest real quick. We talk a lot about the getting up when we fall, continuing to fight when we’re tired, and continuing even when we don’t have the strength to do so. But what about when we’re on the ground and we don’t want to get up? What about while we’re in the fight, what about our thought process when we are getting tired? There are crazy thoughts we face while we’re in that boxing ring trying to get through another round. We Sometimes getting knocked down takes so long to get up because we are battling on the ground too. It’s easy down there, it’s safe down there, we can escape the pain and the blows. Sometimes we don’t know how to get up. Often we feel like we deserve to be sown there. When we’re knocked down and tired, it sometimes feels like that’s where we need to stay. At times getting up is harder than the fighting itself.  But God… God gives us strength, at our weakest points God gives us  understanding. God gives us peace. Yes we still have to go through the fight, and as hard as it is, we aren’t going through it alone. God is right there, giving us everything we need making sure we come out with a victory. Victory lies in our King and that we can depend on.

3. We just have to keep the faith.

Easier said than done, huh? I know it’s hard. It is especially hard when it seems like God is taking all the time in the world to get to us. One thing is for sure is that He is on the way to you. He always comes right on time. His timing is perfect.  

1 John 5:5

Who is it that overcomes the world? Only the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God.

We overcome through Christ. At our weakest  moments, that is the time to hold on to Christ the most. These are the times to stretch our faith a bit further. To go that extra mile. It’s the moments when we are the weakest that we find God to be the strongest. The moments when we are doubting that we find God to be faithful. God is always there, we just have to have an ounce of faith.

Matthew 17:20

He said to them, “Because of your little faith. For truly, I say to you, if you have faith like a grain of mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move, and nothing will be impossible for you.”

All we need is the faith of a mustard seed. Keep the faith, hold on to it, even if you have to fight with everything you have. It’s worth it. God is so faithful.

Reflection/Prayer Time

Today whatever is on your heart pour it out to God. Whatever you need ask God for it. Take the time to pray for yourself, you know what you need. When you are done, take the time to pray for someone else, whoever is on your heart, just lift them up in prayer today.

I love you, I hope you have an amazing day or evening. Share this with someone and come back tomorrow for Day 110!

Day 38: Glorify God NOT The Struggle

Psalms 86:12

I will give thanks to You, O Lord my God, with all my heart, And will glorify Your name forever

We can all say that we’ve been gone through some hard times in our lives, we have bad days, and we go through rainy seasons, and dark valleys. It’s inevitable, it’s just how life is, sometimes it’s hard. However, with that being said, I feel like humanity loves to glorify the struggle, we credit our pain, and struggle for getting us where we are, as opposed to thanking and glorifying God for bringing us out of those dark valleys and low places. Because it definitely wasn’t us, we didn’t get ourselves out, so why is it that when we get out of the rainy season, we act like it was our strength and our strength alone? We thank the people that held us down because “it’s the only reason we were strong enough to get up.” We thank the haters because they “make us better”. But we tend to forget about the people who stayed praying for us, we forget to thank God for the good times. If I’m being honest it’s the prayers of our mothers, our elders, our peers. It’s Jesus standing at the right hand of God constantly interceding for us. But we choose to glorify the things and people that could care less about how far we’ve come from where we used to be. That makes no sense.

The scriptures says; Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth. Worship the Lord with gladness; come before him with joyful songs. Know that the Lord is God. It is he who made us, and we are his we are his people, the sheep of his pasture. (Psalms 100:1-3)

Every moment of our lives we must glorify God, we must remember to thank thank Him for the things He does for us. What keeps us from glorifying God and thanking Him for bringing us through the hard times in our lives, is our pride. We want the credit. We want everyone to see we made, especially our haters.  Everyone wants to be “self-made”. We want everyone to know that we climbed to the top on our own, we made our own paths, we got to the top because of our hard work and dedication. Yes, but too often we forget that we are standing on the shoulders of our savior, we are standing on the shoulders of all the people who prayed for us. We are standing on the shoulders of our elders. But we got there “alone”.  It is God who made us, not we ourselves, we are merely vessels used to bring Him glory.

Today we’re going to keep it simple and sweet, but I want to end with this story.

Luke 17:11-19

Now on his way to Jerusalem, Jesus traveled along the border between Samaria and Galilee. As he was going into a village, ten men who had leprosy met him. They stood at a distance and called out in a loud voice, “Jesus, Master, have pity on us!” When he saw them, he said, “Go, show yourselves to the priests.” And as they went, they were cleansed.One of them, when he saw he was healed, came back, praising God in a loud voice. He threw himself at Jesus’ feet and thanked him—and he was a Samaritan.Jesus asked, “Were not all ten cleansed? Where are the other nine? Has no one returned to give praise to God except this foreigner?” Then he said to him, “Rise and go; your faith has made you well.”

Reflection

1. Based on the above passage, think back and reflect, how often have you been the one out of the ten that came to thank Jesus?
2. How often have you been the ten?
3. Based on your answers to the above questions, what can you do to change or improve your answer?
4. Why do you think we as young people tend to glorify our struggle?

Prayer Time

Reread the passage above, and ask God to help you become the one that will always come back and thank Him. Take the time today to just honor and glorify God for all the things in your life, all the good things, even the struggle because He is glorified even in the darkest moments.

Be thankful for the good things happening in your life today and everyday. Pay no attention to those holding your down, or those who don’t want you to succeed. Remember the ones that are praying for you, the ones that lift you higher so you can reach your potential.

I love you! Have an amazing day and make sure you come back tomorrow for Day 39!