For When Life Hits Hard

Every morning I drive pass cotton fields on the way to dropping the kids off at school. God speaks clearly through these fields. It’s funny how seasons change. It uses to be the beach, and now it’s a cotton field.

The road slightly bends and curves around, like a curtain drawing back God relieves the beauty of these fields. Just a month ago they were vibrant with cotton ready for harvest. You could fully tell they were healthy and ready for harvest. Now it’s a different story. The cotton is gone, and the fields plowed. Barren and desolate. No sign of healthy growth, just bare fields.

To the eye, it looks dead, and if you didn’t know it was just flourishing, you would have no hope for this land.

A few weeks ago God whispered, ”You know the soil is resting.”

Resting?!

Quickly I googled it, and sure enough, soil rests after harvest. Resting often looks like we’re doing nothing at all. Desolate, like the fields after harvest.

My dad’s recent diagnosed of brain cancer brought on a new level of uncertainty. The pain and fear of the reality of the diagnosis seemed to be woven amid the faith to believe for a miracle. In the natural, it looks desolate, like the fields, in the spiritual I know it looks much different. How do we live the reality of what is, yet believe for the unseen?

It can be hard to keep believing when your situation looks hopeless. 

The greatest challenge of faith is holding onto hope after life hits hard.

In this season,  I know the word God spoke several weeks ago is my now word. Things look grim, and the situation seems unfruitful without hope, but God is asking me to rest in Him knowing He is taking care of everything.

“You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. Only goodness and faithful love will pursue me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord as long as I live.” Ps. 23: 5-6

Each day I open my arms in surrender because no matter what today holds  God has already gone ahead, anointing us with His presence. The dark feels lighter when we know His love and presence will never leave us! Our cup overflows! No matter how bleak and barren a situation looks, God is working behind the scenes for His glory.

Recently, I noticed a pattern in the Old Testament. God’s ultimate goal was to uphold and display the glory of his name. It’s all for His glory!

God called Israel for his glory:

You are my servant, Israel, in whom I will be glorified (Isaiah 49:3).

I made the whole house of Israel and the whole house of Judah cling to me, declares the Lord, that they might be for me a people, a name, a praise, and a glory (Jeremiah 13:11).

God saved Israel from Egypt for his glory:

Our fathers, when they were in Egypt, did not consider your wondrous works . . . but rebelled by the Sea, at the Red Sea. He saved them for his name’s sake, that he might make known his mighty power (Psalm 106:7-8).

God raised Pharaoh to show his power and glorify his name:

For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, “For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I might show my power in you, and that my name may be proclaimed in all the earth.” (Romans 9:17)

God defeated Pharaoh at the Red Sea to show his glory:

And I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, and he will pursue them, and I will get glory over Pharaoh and all his host, and the Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord . . . And the Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord when I have gotten glory over Pharaoh, his chariots, and his horsemen. (Exodus 14:4, 18; cf. v. 17)

God acted on behalf of Israel in the wilderness for the glory of his name:

I acted for the sake of my name, that it should not be profaned in the sight of the nations, in whose sight I had brought them out. (Ezekiel 20:l4)

God gave Israel victory in Canaan for the glory of his name:

Who is like your people Israel, the one nation on earth whom God went to redeem to be his people, making himself a name and doing for them great and awesome things by driving out before your people, whom you redeemed for yourself from Egypt, a nation and its gods? (2 Samuel 7:23)

God restored Israel from exile for the glory of his name:

Thus says the Lord God, It is not for your sake, O house of Israel, that I am about to act, but for the sake of my holy name.. . . And I will vindicate the holiness of my great name. . . . And the nations will know that I am the Lord. (Ezekiel 36:22-23; cf. v. 32)

If we serve the same God as in the Old Testament, then can’t we trust He is working on our behalf for the glory of His name today?

As I read and reread the words of the Old Testament, I felt my spirit begin to exhale and rest. Hope seeps in as I  walk forward in faith, knowing my future lies with a good God, who will never counteract His very nature. Because we have to remember everything He does is for the glory of His name. And this, my friend, is why we can rest like the cotton fields after harvest.

When our hearts grip with uncertainty, Jesus speaks:

“Barrenness leads to beauty. Because in every barren, empty place there I stand, Jesus. Waiting and willing to make all things new. I will heal and restore your brokenness. I love you. Come just as you are.” -exert from our 2019 Devotional Calendar. Order yours today Here.