I just heard from a friend who is struggling.  A friend that is hurting yet not giving up.  Weary in the battle, but pressing on. Knowing that God has a plan and a purpose and that the struggle isn’t it vain. Aware that sometimes it’s darkest before the dawn…

I’ve been there.  Multiple times.  And I will be there again.  In that place where life feels too big and overwhelming and complicated that it takes everything in me to take a deep breath and face it once again.  Where my soul, mind and even body are exhausted from the effort.

I’m so glad that God’s resources are endless.  That all we have to do is ask, and His power and strength are at our disposal.  Maybe it’s not the situation that will change.  Maybe WE change.  And we start realizing that all our valiant effort and work is not enough.  That we need Jesus to get us through this.  Our perspective begins to change shape and we recognize that if we look closely and watch carefully and trust God’s hand, that we can begin to see that hand at work.  Hands that reached through darkness to create our world, that stretched out on a cross to save our lives, that have pulled us from “miry clay”, that have shaped us at the potter’s wheel, that have touched us at our ugliest and healed us, transformed us.  Those same hands will lift us up and give us the strength we need for this day.  Even if this day is difficult and dark and lonely.  His hands have faced difficult, dark and lonely.  They are familiar with our worst days…

Jesus, may we see your hands doing something good today.  Help us to watch closely and carefully with hopeful expectation.  Show us glimmers of light in the dark days that tell us that You are here with us and are working on something precious inside of us.  Something that is drawing us nearer to Your side and closer to Your heart….Jesus, show us Your hands…..

Jeremiah 31:25 – I will refresh the weary and satisfy the faint.

Isaiah 40:31 – But those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.

Psalm 40:5 –  I waited patiently for the LORD;  he turned to me and heard my cry. He lifted me out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire; he set my feet on a rock and gave me a firm place to stand.  He put a new song in my mouth, a hymn of praise to our God. Many will see and fear the LORD and put their trust in him.

Isaiah 64:8 – Yet, O LORD, you are our Father. We are the clay, you are the potter; we are all the work of your hand.