“I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength”.
Those were the first words that came to my mind when I was feeling slightly stressed and overwhelmed by the enormity of life recently.
Whether you work a 9 to 5 or attend college or university for sporadic hours throughout the week; whether you’re a single mother with multiple jobs or a CEO with crazy hours, we are all going through life, and our individual struggles and stresses should not be minimised. I generally don’t get out of bed til after 9am, yet I also don’t feel like I stop working until after midnight on some days. I’m a bit of a night owl! Others may be ‘morning people’. Their 5am wake-up seems like the most natural thing in the world to them; yet it looks like perpetual fatigue and flu to me! (I catch colds quickly when I’m rundown through lack of sleep, as do most people.) But larks may get to bed by 10pm and see my lifestyle as equally exhausting. It’s swings and roundabouts.
What I’m trying to say is that sometimes I wonder to myself why I have a right to feel overwhelmed at times when I’m not running a multibillion dollar conglomerate! Then I think, because my life is my life and right now I’m being pushed to my personal capacity, but I’ll continue beyond this because…
“I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength.”
Philippians 4:13
It’s important to note too that being pushed ‘beyond’ your personal capacity is an opportunity for stretch, development and growth. Imagine what you’ll be able to do years down the line because of this one challenge you’ve faced and overcome!
“God never gives you more than you can handle.”
I Corinthians 10:13
And about my big hopes and dreams that at times seem so lofty and out of reach I almost want to give up, get back in to bed and pull the covers right over my head forever…
“All things are possible for those who believe”.
Mark 9:23
And when I’m suffering through a series of horrible events – one after another after another – and my soul feels joyless and grieving…
What quotes or affirmations do you use to uplift you in hard times? Share them with me & others!
In May 2016, when I was in the first stages of mourning for the loss of my Olympic hopes and dreams, I turned to comfort from a verse I’d read a week or two earlier that I’d highlighted simply because it stood out to me at the time. There was no reason for it to stand out at the time other than the Psalmist thought it to be such an important verse he repeated it twice in that same chapter and again later on. So I highlighted it, and it subsequently became my light through my ensuing dark times. When i first read it, I was floating along in comfort and peace. (Funny that, huh?) But in usual God-timing it became perfectly poignant a week or so later, helping me to believe and even see the light at the end of the tunnel.
If you’re going through struggles, stress, grief or sadness, hear this:
“Why are you downcast, O my soul?/ Why so disturbed within me? / Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise Him, my Saviour and my God.”
Psalm 42:3 & 11
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