Take Heart

Take Heart Battered Boxer

Psalms 27:14 Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord. NIV11

I’ve experienced some tough trials in life: divorce, severe loneliness, aimlessness, three miscarriages, the loss of a child on her delivery day, abandonment by friends, the death of my father, and struggles with sin in the lives of those I love the most (not to mention my own). Many people have an even more dramatic “suffering resume” than I. Sometimes it can feel like we are overpowered boxers, enduring blow after blow, and feeling a bit of a moral victory by somehow managing to get back on our feet.

Here are three things that have helped me endure life’s losses:

• Stay the course. You may feel like God is distant, has hurt you, or even abandoned you. But cling to him like your life depends on it, because it does. Keep following his ways. Never let go. He is all you’ve got!
• Keep trusting him. In the middle of the stories of Esther or Job or Joseph, it seemed like everything was falling apart—as if God had no plan and there was no hope. But God had a plan the whole time.  Trusting him to the middle gets you nowhere. Trust him to the end. Trust him even when life is dark and scary and unbearably hard.
• Wait for deliverance. Keep clinging to him. Shed lots of tears. Pray like crazy. Share your trials with others. Whatever you need to do to stay the course, do that. But don’t give up.

God is powerful. He has a plan. He cares for you. If you’ve been knocked down, he’ll help you up. If you are too tired to go on, he will strengthen you. Take heart battered boxer! “Be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord!”

 

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Listen to this message to find out more about the amazing story of Esther that was mentioned in the sermon!