As You Have Promised

Week Nine | Fifty-Two 3.5.21

So that person you see being consistently strong and resolute in their faith, the core of who they are and what they believe…

Well, that person is only as strong and resolute as their commitment is to engage with the truth, and most importantly Truth himself.

On days when the winds blow gentle,

On days when the waves crash cruel.

On days when your heart sings happy,

On days when your soul cries crushed.

On days when what is new brings much delight,

On days when what is old brings more comfort.

The thing is, truth is pretty easy to find ~ and receive ~ on those gentle, happy, delighting kind of days.

It’s the cruel, crushing, comfort-needing kind of days that truth feels so brutally hard.

When you can’t carry on, on your own. And you need that other strong, resolute person to stand in the gap for you.

It happened to the Israelites, just as they were preparing to enter the promised land of Canaan, after forty years of wilderness wandering. After experiencing the favor, mercy, and awe of God, they fell prey to their humanity.

“Then the whole community began weeping aloud, and they cried all night. ....’If only we had died in Egypt, or even here in the wilderness!’ they complained. Why is the Lord taking us to this country only to have us die in battle? … Wouldn’t it be better for us to return to Egypt?”

If only...

Why...

Wouldn’t it be better…

Questions make us human.

Questions may follow disillusionment.

Questions may precede a promise. 

Questions may require someone else to stand strong and resolute, on our behalf, for the glory of God.

“Then Moses and Aaron fell on their faces … ‘please let the power of the Lord be great

as you have promised...”

Because yeah, sometimes it takes another to go before us, to plead our case and remind us what is true, when we’re frail with fear, fresh with heartbreak.

It’s where I’ve been, even as recently as this very week. I’m not disappointed in God, just by His answer to a desperate, full of faith cry for help and healing. As a daughter who adores her Father, I’ve just felt so crushed by Him. And this heaviness is not only hard to confess, but to hold up under.

And then her words came unsuspectingly through a text, “You just fill my cup! God is working and we are waiting and watching. Isn’t He a good, good Father?!”

She honestly didn’t know the full struggle of my wandering heart in this dark season ~ but He did. And for the first time in weeks of numbness, I *felt His goodness running after me.

My friend’s declaration of truth didn’t remove my wrestle, but it did offer a safe place for me to remember that everything ~ especially the hardest things ~ really are and will be,

“as You have promised.”

Even if it takes until Heaven-come.

So today, I humbly ask you to find that person ~ yeah, that strong, resolute one ~ and be their “Moses”. Pray with all your heart the promises of God over them, and then reach out and remind them of all that is always True and Good.

From one who knows the power of both sides, thank you. And thank you to my precious friends who have been my people in our grieving days. You are gifts of grace.

{Verses taken from Numbers 14}