“I will sing of the Lord’s great love forever; with my mouth I will make your faithfulness known through all generations.” -Psalm 89:1
Currently my brain is waging war with my heart – my brain is reminding me of the 3 tests on Monday that I need to study for, the big presentation tomorrow that I need to finish preparing for, the $5,000 I need to raise for my mission trip for Africa and a plethora of other things I have to get done.
But my heart urges me to take a moment, slow down, brag on my God and offer encouragement…guess which one won? (Although my brain still hasn’t given up the fight!)
I started this morning off singing what was all too true: “Lord, I’m tired, so tired from traveling, this straight and narrow is so much harder than I thought” (Keep Running, Matt Papa). My body ached from the cold I’ve had this week, and I was overwhelmed with my large and ever-growing to-do list. I was anxious and exhausted and just wanted to crawl in bed for a few days and not care about school or my city or people.
But God sang right back to me through the chorus of the same song: “Keep running, keep running, don’t lose heart, don’t you give up now” and I told him okay, I would keep going, but that I would need encouragement if I were to succeed; yet in the back of my mind I doubted it would come, I doubted He would provide the comfort and words I desperately needed to hear.
Looking back on it now, I should have told Him that I needed him, not encouragement, just Him. That’s biblical and good, and while I’m ashamed to admit it, that’s not what I said. Instead of asking for my Savior’s help, for the Creator of the Universe, for the God of comfort and peace, instead of asking for the one thing I really need, I asked for encouragement. While encouragement wasn’t a bad thing to ask for, it definitely wasn’t the Best thing to ask for.
But even though I put myself and my desires over Jesus, He still faithfully scooped me up into His arms.
Man, did God provide encouragement! He provided it through music, professors, friends, family and complete strangers. And every time I turned around today, God was already there handing me more of it.
Even more so, He gently showed me that I didn’t need encouragement nearly as much as I needed him. He reminded me of his faithfulness and love and care.
And he once again showed me that He is the loving Father, wanting to give out good gifts to His children if they would just ask.
As exams quickly approach and we all are even busier than normal, I challenge you to rely on God for everything. So many different people offered me encouragement today and now I want to offer you some. But even more, I challenge you to need Jesus and to admit you need Jesus.
So to all my tired and energized, busy and bored, overwhelmed and anxious, happy and confused, prepared and unprepared friends, take heart,
abounding in love and faithfulness. (Psalm 86:15)
Kaitlin Ebeling 