I’d like to share with you a section from my prayer journal I recently reread.
October 26, 1997
Lord, I feel hard pressed on every side–Steve’s job situation, the request for him to take on additional, outside-the-family responsibilities, the homeschool support group, the children’s illnesses, and Steve’s magazine decision.
2 Corinthians 4:7-12, “But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us. We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; Persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed; Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body. For we which live are alway delivered unto death for Jesus’ sake, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh. So then death worketh in us, but life in you.”
Lord, may this time of pressing be a time of my faith being rooted and grounded in Jesus Christ–no matter what happens. May the life of Jesus Christ be revealed in my life. Lord, I feel afraid of the unknown–of what the changes may bring.
Isaiah 43:18-19, “Remember ye not the former things, neither consider the things of old. Behold, I will do a new thing; now it shall spring forth; shall ye not know it? I will even make a way in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert.”
2 Timothy 1:7, “For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.”
Psalms 46:1-3, “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore will not we fear, though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea; Though the waters thereof roar and be troubled, though the mountains shake with the swelling thereof. Selah.”
Sunday morning, Lord, and I am home alone with Jesse and Mary sick. It is the day before Steve’s lay-off. I feel hard-pressed and fearful, but You sent snow, my very favorite thing–pretty, white, peaceful, quiet. Lord, was it for me? A sign that You are in the midst of the pressure and fear?
I had completely forgotten that particular morning. Even the details of what was pressing on my heart had vanished from my memory until I read them on another quite recent Sunday morning when I was home from church with sick children.
I was so encouraged when I did read this, though, because I saw clearly God’s hand of faithfulness. Almost four years later, none of those pressures are a part of my life any more. The Lord walked us through each decision. The unknowns are now known and there was absolutely nothing to fear. The Lord was faithful to use His Word to comfort my heart then and now in reading back over what He gave me that one Sunday morning.
I don’t journal often, mostly when I am discouraged or feeling pressure from life in some way. At those times, it helps me to write out my struggles and to also put on paper Scriptures that apply to the emotions I am battling. Often, when I don’t write them down, God’s truth is pushed behind the force of my own thinking. When that Scripture is in front of me for me to read and meditate on, it helps me to take captive my thoughts and bring them into the obedience of Christ.
What about you? Are you struggling with keeping God’s truth in your mind? Perhaps you could take some time to search out applicable Scriptures and then write them out. You could keep them someplace where you can actually read them to yourself over and over.
Maybe you are finding yourself in the midst of decisions and other pressures. Can you look back and give God glory for His faithfulness to you in the past rather than dwelling on the uncertainties of today? As I look at other decisions and pressures Steve and I are faced with right now, this small page from my prayer journal four years ago shows me that another four years from now I probably won’t even remember what I am facing at this moment. Each difficulty and decision, taken to the Lord, is worked out in His timing with His plan.
May we, as Christian women, truly live out in our daily lives the truths of God’s Word that are so dear to our hearts. May we be encouraged as we look back on God’s faithfulness through the past week, month, year, four years, and more.