You Are Not Alone: Hope For Hard Seasons

Chapters

• 0:00 Welcome And Gratitude
• 0:36 A Song That Stilled The Noise
• 2:43 Facing Delays And Unmet Hopes
• 3:23 Comfort For A Hard Holiday
• 4:36 Dwelling In God’s Presence
• 6:46 God’s Faithfulness And Provision
• 8:26 Songs Of Hope And Strength
• 9:26 Psalm 23 Read And Reflected
• 10:15 Practical Faith Tips For The Season
• 11:00 You Are Not Alone
• 12:35 Prayer And Upcoming Daily Series

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:00

Hi and welcome back to another Position for Purpose Conversations. I'm your host, Colette Marie. I want to say a very special thank you for having listened and shared and leaving your feedback and your commitment comments on our episodes. It truly has been an encouragement and a blessing to me to hear about all the episodes have been blessing you and about how God is just meeting you where you are with what you are hearing. Today is Monday, December 22nd, and as I sit here, I am reflecting on the past week. I heard a song playing in my head. I had to get up and to search for it. I started humming it. And then I went to search for it. Because I said it sounded familiar, but I wasn't sure. And when I found it, and I just allowed the song to just waffle over my mind, just just to slowly invade my thoughts and my spirit, and I listened to the words. Right, just thinking about something that was coming up and how I would be dealing with it and how God would show up for me in that situation. So as I listened to it, and even now the thoughts coming back to my mind, that a part there's a part that says, I will not be overwhelmed. Another line that says, Give me wisdom to know just what to do. And I don't know about you and where you are right at this moment. What you need to be reminded of, what song God is placing in your spirit to take you on your journey, whether you are in the valleys or whether you are on the mountaintops, what is he saying to you through a scripture, through a dream, through his words, what is he saying through a song, what is he saying to you? As I listened to that song playing, it gave me hope because I'm remembering that it says, Forever all my days, I will love you, Lord, because whether times are good and whether times are bad, God still requires our love because He is still faithful. He is a God that has kept us, He is a God that walks alongside us, He is a God who makes the provisions, makes the impossible, possible, made ways when there seemed to be no way. And what I got from that was that it doesn't matter the situations. You may be looking back over the course of the year and you may be saying, God, I've had all of these dreams, these ideas, these thoughts that I thought you gave me, but I have not seen them manifested the way I was thinking that they would have. God is still saying, I look to me, look to me, the author and the finisher of your faith still look to me. Despite what you may be going through, I have still and I still walking with you in your journey. And you know, especially as this Christmas season is approaching in another three days, I know some persons are without their loved ones, some persons are dreading the season, and you if you are that person who the season brings up a lot of hardness in your heart or or just a longing for something else, can I remind you and encourage you that the Lord knows? Tell him exactly how you are feeling in this moment, though he already knows he likes when we come to him as a child to his father to say, Daddy, this is how I am feeling, this is what is happening. As I think about that, the scripture that comes to my mind in Psalm 27, it speaks about dwelling in the presence of the Lord. It it talks about dwelling in the presence of the Lord, and I don't know where you are at now, but I want to encourage you and to remind you of what that ex that that particular part says. It says, One thing I ask from the Lord, this only do I seek, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze on the beauty of the Lord and to seek him in his temple. For in the day of trouble he will keep me safe in his dwelling, he will hide me in the shelter of his sacred tent and set me high upon a rock. That's Psalm 27 verse 4 to 5. God is your rock, he is your everything. Do not allow what you have not seen come to pass yet, or what is happening now. Push you away from God in this season. Bolster your faith in what the word of God says, the encouragement he gives to his word, or the song that he has placed in your spirit while you are sleeping or while you are awake, or the word that he has sent for you, that he has asked you to turn to, and you've going to it as a resource. Go to it this morning as they see it as God talking to you, as God reminding you of who he is and who you are in his presence. I am at that place right now, and I I got up this morning just thinking about a lot of stuff, a lot of stuff, just thinking about the year, weighing my wins and looking at my losses, or seemingly losses, or looking at what we may might deem as failures and wonder. Why is our things taking so long to fall in place? And Father, what lessons are you teaching me in this? And can I tell you? So I told you about the song last week that came into my spirit. God, I look to you. If you can search for it, it's by Bethel Music. It's really a good song to encourage you, especially in this season. But another one came into my spirit this week. I was just on YouTube and saw it, and it was a reminder that God can do anything, that there is nothing too hard for God to do. It's a song by John Mark Wigan and Rundell Positive in a group called Gilead. And it's just like it's just being in my spirit, just keep going, reverbiating in my spirit. There's nothing that our God cannot do. He who knows the end from the beginning, he who was in eternity past and eternity to come. He knows everything that you and I are going through. And yet still, he sends a word that encourages, a word that strengthens, a word that bolsters our faith in him and in his ability to keep us. That's the God we serve. That's the God we serve, and I want to read for you from Psalm 23 as well, as a way of encouraging your spirit during this season. And Psalm 23 says, and I'm reading from the New Living Translation. The Lord is my shepherd, I have all that I need. He lets me rest in green meadows, he leads me beside peaceful streams. He renews my strength, he guides me along right paths, bringing honor to the His name. Even when I walk through the darkest valley, I will not be afraid, for you are close beside me. Your rod and your staff protect and comfort me. You prepare a feast for me in the presence of my enemies. You honor me by anointing my head with oil. My cup overflows with blessings. Surely goodness and unfailing love will pursue me all the days of my life, and I will live in the house of the Lord forever. That's the encouragement that I want to leave with you today. That God walks beside you. Whether you feel like you're going through the valley of death, death, God says, You're going through. He says he will prepare a table before you in the presence of your enemies. So whatever you are faced with today, any difficulty, any challenge, any heartache, any pain, God is saying, I am there with you. I am there with you. So three tips I want to share as you go through this holiday season, as you reflect on this year and look at your journey, and as you look forward to a new year, God's willing. I want to share with you that one. Remember who God is. Remember who God is. He is the eternal one, he is the one that makes the impossible possible. He is God your father. Two, surround yourself with people who will encourage you and who will build you up and who will remind you of who your father is and where he has brought you from and what he has been doing in your life. Because sometimes our own thoughts of what we have done does not match up to the reality of what has actually happened. And when someone else is there, are able to give us a better picture. Because sometimes the hardship and the way how we we we we we we look at things can cloud and crowd out what God has done. And the three, find some time to spend in his presence and reflect on your journey. Look at the things that God has done over the year, and then choose the fourth one. Choose to give him thanks. Because whether you are on the mountaintop or you were in the valley, God was walking through this with you. You were never alone. What came to destroy you did not, you are still remaining standing. You might have been bruised, yes, but you are still standing, and that was because God walked with you. Even if it brought you to your knees, you were able to look up and you were able to see God, see his hands outstretched, lifting you up, lifting you up. Those are the things that I will be using. You know, I've talked countless times about the importance of reflection, and that's what I will be doing this time. I will be reminiscing about the goodness of God. I will also be surrounding myself with my friends as a way of reminding me about what God has done. I'll be spending time in his presence, I'll be reading his words because I want those to be the thing that reminds me that forever and always I will love my God, that I will look to him and I will not be overwhelmed because the Lord is my shepherd, he walks alongside me. So today is a mixture of things in this conversation. But I hope that you will get one key thing from this that you are not alone, that God walks with you. And so if you are dreading the holiday season, God is there with you. If you are reflecting on the past and think you have not accomplished all that you think you could have done, God is still walking alongside you. And if you are facing the hardness and some real challenging times, and you are not even sure how to start acknowledging the goodness of God or even hear him giving you a word or a song. Today I want to remind you to just sit in with sit in his presence with that. Tell him where you are, tell him how you are feeling, and then give it all to him because he's well able to keep you, he's well able to supply all your needs according to his riches in glory. He's well able to fill you with peace that surpasses his peace that surpasses all human understanding. He is our refuge and our fortress, our strong tower and our deliverer. Have an amazing time. Lord, I want to thank you for my sister listening today. You know exactly where she is, and you know exactly what she needs to hear from you. And so I pray, Father, that you'll just show up for her, that you'll minister to her, Lord God. That you will send words that will comfort her and remind her of who she is in you and who you have always been to her. I pray that you'll continue to bless her and to make her a blessing. In your name I pray with thanksgiving. Amen and amen. See you next time on Positioned for Purpose. And actually, for the next four days, I'll be putting out an episode each day. And it is really just reading some scriptures for you and praying with you, and may just share a short word of encouragement. I love you, my sister, but God loves you even more.