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How to Be Strong when Life Wears You Down
“Be strong and courageous.”
It isn’t a suggestion. In fact, it’s a command. From God.
But what happens when you don’t feel all that strong. What if you’re flat-out tired… exhausted from seemingly constant challenges? Poor health, work, kids, marriage, even church can wear a body down. What then?
God’s answer: “Be strong and courageous.”
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Where Do You Find Satisfaction?
I felt famished.
I’d skipped breakfast. Work had been so hectic; I had forgotten to eat lunch. By the time I got in the car for the forty-five minute commute home, I was starving. Too hungry to think about cooking, I picked up a couple of take-out pizzas and some bread sticks.
Oh… the rich smells that filled the car: warm bread, cheese, garlic, mmmm. I tore open the bag that held the greasy, delicious bread sticks and shoved one into my mouth, swallowing it so fast that I barely tasted it. Minutes after pulling into the driveway, I sat down with my family and ate slice after slice of pizza. Suddenly, I wasn’t hungry anymore; I felt sick and full of regret for having overeaten.
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Hearing Jesus’s Voice in a Crowded World
“But he who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. To him the gatekeeper opens. The sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has brought out all his own, he goes before them, and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice.”
John 10: 2-4
My husband has an ear for voices. When we’re watching a television commercial or animated film, he can quickly identify the actor who is speaking. Sometimes (often), I don’t believe him. I’ll argue for a minute and then look up the movie on IMDB.com and, almost always, find out that he was right.
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Gaining Perspective
It is easy to let our priorities get out of whack. Too easy!
Tell me if you can relate to this scenario: You love your family, your God and your Savior. You do. But spending time with them seems impossible. Your calendar and life are crammed from morning ’til night with things that have nothing to do with what you know deep down are most important. Your attention is scattered in a million different directions. Your responsibilities weigh heavily on your heart and shoulders. The more you do to take care of your family, the less connected you feel to them. You look around and can’t remember the last time you’ve had anything more than a few passing words at night with God before succumbing to exhaustion.
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You Are Not Alone
She tried to hide the tears by looking out the window. Her little boy played cheerfully with the toy that came with his meal. But even at two years old, he knew something wasn’t right with his mom. Using a crumpled napkin, he clumsily patted at the tears on her cheeks.
Your Story Isn’t about You
Your story is not really about you; it’s about God. We are created in God’s image so that we might reflect and glorify HIM, not ourselves. Your story is simply a way for people to see God more clearly.
Brothers, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for them is that they may be saved. For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. For, being ignorant of the righteousness of God, and seeking to establish their own, they did not submit to God’s righteousness. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.
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Sick of Struggling?
Sharing our faith stories matters because we can’t “do it all” ourselves. It, meaning life. If you’re sick of struggling, stop trying to do life alone.
Isolation makes matters worse. But when we share our struggles, we can grow and learn together. The goal isn’t to commiserate; it’s to help someone who is dealing with challenges similar to those you’ve faced. You can do that by sharing the ways God has reached into your life during hard times and provided encouragement, or instruction through the Bible, or a sense of hope when you were hanging on by a thread.
And yes, getting personal goes against the grain. Fear of being the focus of someone’s gossip keeps a lot of us from sharing. But think of it this way: If you are consistently authentic and honest, you have nothing to hide. That means people won’t have anything to gossip about!
Click play to listen now to my radio interview with Andrew Kohler on Bible Talk.
Or Download to listen later.
Do you know your stories? Do you know how to share them? Order your copy of Get Personal on Amazon today, and use the form to the right to get your free copy of the Get Personal Story Journal.
Behind the Scenes
You were allotted this time and the place you live so that you would have the opportunity to know God.
Wow. Let that sink in. God gave you this time and day so you can find Him. He wants YOU to know Him.
“The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything. And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, that they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us, for ‘In him we live and move and have our being.’….” Acts 17:24-27
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Too Personal to Share?
Have you ever thought about calling it quits? Throwing in the towel? Walking away?
Sure you have. We all have. Because the reality is: Life is hard.
Parenting is difficult.
Marriage can be a struggle.
No matter where you are in the world today, it’s hard to find and keep a job.
When you try to deal with problems and the accompanying feelings of depression, stress or anger in isolation, life only gets harder.
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D5 Creation