Have you ever flat-out told God you couldn’t take it one more day?

I have. Several times, in fact.

But one time in particular is burned into my memory.  We lived in Australia at the time. I was working as a kindergarten teacher in a Christian school, and I also drove one of their school buses. A couple times a week, I’d leave the school during lunch to refuel my bus.

For four years, I’d been suffering intense emotional pain. Every day I cried out for God to change the circumstances causing my pain. I just didn’t want to hurt anymore. I was desperate for relief.

That day, I pulled my bus into the gas station and climbed down, crushed by the weight of all I was facing. I felt there was no end in sight, that the race I was called to run stretched on for countless miles in front of me. And I just couldn’t take another step.

As I pumped the fuel, I leaned my head up against the bus and told God I was done. I was done hurting, done trying. I told Him I couldn’t live one more day in the situation I was in.

The words He whispered to my heart in that moment got me through the difficult days that followed, and I want to share them with you today.

My Child, I know you’re tired. I’ve seen every moment of your pain and every tear you’ve cried. I’ve heard every prayer of desperation. Don’t look at the whole road ahead of you. You don’t have to make it that far. Just hang on a little while longer.

Just a little while longer.

Now, that I could do. I couldn’t face another whole week, month, or year in my situation. But I could do today. With God’s help, I could do today.

And that’s what I did. I climbed up into my bus, headed back to school and finished teaching for the day. Nothing about my situation had changed.

Except for my mindset.

Sometimes we paralyze ourselves by looking too far into the future.

When your heart is breaking, it’s easy to think it will always be broken.

When your tears are falling, it’s easy to think they will never stop.

When your dreams are crushed, it’s easy to think you will never have another dream.

When these kinds of feelings overwhelm you, don’t look too far into the future. God will give you grace for those days when you get there.

But for today–for today, all you have to do is take the next step. Do the next thing.

By God’s grace and in His strength, take that next small step. He will take care of the minutes, hours, days, and years that follow.

“He giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might he increaseth strength. Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall: But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength: they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint. (Isaiah 40:29-31)

 

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