There is little else to say but I am finding myself more and more exhausted at the end of my work week. There’s a lot of times I can ‘pull on my big girl panties’ and keep on keeping on. And then…there’s days I lose heart. There’s days when all the positive Christian music playing cannot drown out the negative talk and fears being repeated by my office. There’s days when I can talk countless others ‘down’ but it takes my last hoarse words. There’s days I cry. There’s days when all of my usual means of self-preservation cannot uplift me. I…lose heart.
What do you do when you lose heart? I wouldn’t say that I have an automatic answer…we all likely have our own ways to ‘get through it.’ And I’m not here to say mine is right or yours is wrong. But I’m going to talk about how the Bible is the Living Word again. [See the post on Bringing your Bible https://thebrokenmandolin.com/bring-your-bible/].
‘Be careful, keep calm and don’t be afraid. Do not lose heart because of these two smoldering stubs of firewood…’
Isaiah 7:3
What a funny verse to lead you to. But this is what reading your Bible can offer. I sat here, knowing I’m struggling. I don’t usually recommend ‘flipping to a page and pointing to a verse’ but God is throughout this wonderful book and I have found Him to be profound when I actually look.
Quick context; the prophet Isaiah was instructed by God to go reassure King Ahaz that two men (referenced in the verse as ‘two smoldering stubs of wood’) would not bring his kingdom to ruin as they were promising.
And God tells this King through Isaiah to 1) be careful, 2) keep calm, 3) do not be afraid and 4) do not lose heart. Today my financial stability was challenged and I was promised legal revenge. I was in great jeopardy, after a thankless 4 months, of not being careful, of not keeping calm, of being afraid and losing heart. This was the verse that caught my eye. I kept reading.
‘If you do not stand firm in your faith, you will not stand at all.’
Isaiah 7:9
I am to combat those four things with standing firm in my faith. Not by being strong on my own.
The Lord spoke to me with his strong hand upon me, warning me not to follow the way of this people. He said:
‘Do not call conspiracy everything that these people call conspiracy, do not fear what they fear, and do not dread it.’
‘The LORD Almighty is the one who you are to regard as holy, he is the one you are to fear, he is the one you are to dread, and he will be a sanctuary….”
Isaiah 8:11-14
I could use a Sanctuary right now…a safe place…I don’t know about you. Perhaps I’m the only one who is losing heart. But if there is a chance I am not alone…feel free to use these verses to turn your mind away from those ‘smoldering stubs of firewood’ and focus instead on God, on your faith, so that you may stand. Or…start your own study in this wonderful book.
As the well-known song goes:
Turn your eyes upon Jesus, look full on His wonderful face And the things of Earth will grow strangely dim, in the light of His wonderful face.
