Tag: courage

You are Never Alone

Whatever you’re going through, always remember that you are never alone.

“In her lowest place she found grace, the strength, the courage, the room, the space to move and live and breathe again.”

Morgan Harper Nichols

           A lot of us find ourselves in a place where we truly believe we are alone. Forever alone.

            Maybe a relationship ended. Maybe one never began. Maybe a longtime friendship fell apart. Maybe a loved one is gone. Or maybe the doubts are just seeping in more than usual.

            Whatever place your in right now, I want you to close your eyes. Take a deep breath. You’re still here for a reason.

            And it’s to touch others’ lives.

            I know that right now that might be hard to believe. Some days feel just too difficult to get up, much less actually change the world.

            What a large task, changing the world.

            But the best news is, despite all that your mind is telling you, you’re never alone.

            When I was first in that place where I needed to hear those words, I didn’t actually realize that it was a common phrase of encouragement. Sometimes when phrases become a second nature to us, we forget their true meaning.

            So I feel fortunate that the time I heard it, I believed those words and felt like they were everything I needed to keep going.

            Okay, maybe not everything. I still had doubts. I still felt alone sometimes.

            But it gave me hope.

            You may have heard the phrase “you are never alone” hundreds of times. Maybe they have lost their meaning for you. But I hope today that you can read them with fresh eyes. I wish I could say them to you in person.

            I want you to feel them. Let them sink in.

            You are never alone.

            Now, you might think, Hannah, you don’t know what kind of situation I’m in!

            That’s true, I don’t. I can’t pretend to understand what you are going through.

            But I do know this. God will always be there waiting for you. He is the One who will not leave you alone in a pit of despair. He is the One who will lift you out and make you into His perfect creation.

            I also know something else.

            At least one person is praying for you. At least one person cares about you.

            I am praying for you and I care about you. I don’t know anything about you, but I know that you are worthy of being cared about.

            Nothing you did could ever separate you from the love of God. Absolutely nothing.

            You are priceless. Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. Nothing about you can change that, either. Not your looks, your career, your quirks, your awkward moments, your mistakes.

            Because those things aren’t going to last forever.

            Love is the only thing that can truly bind us together, forever, with the One who gave us life in the first place.

            So let love fill your heart. There is still hope. You will be able to love again. You will be loved again. And you are currently loved by the One who knows how to love the best.

            And remember, no matter what you are facing, you are never alone.

The Lord appeared to him from far away. I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore I have continued my faithfulness to you.

Jeremiah 31:3

After the Prayer

Prayer is a good first step, but when is it time to take action?

Prayer is the most important spiritual practice you can take part in. However, it can be misused in a way that actually harms you. Often, we say we’ll pray about something, and that’s wonderful. But then we can use it as an excuse to not take action. If things don’t happen related to the issue, we blame God instead of ourselves.

I know that I’ve done this before. If I’m afraid, I’ll just tell myself that God will handle it for me once I pray. Of course God should be a source of comfort and peace. Yet, He does not want us to sit idly by and not do the work to make progress.

I know this might be a tough love moment, but in the end, your relationship with God will strengthen if you are willing to do more than pray.

Instead of praying something specific, pray that God’s will can be done and that God will give you the strength to do the hard thing. We should ultimately want God’s will to be done because, as I talked about in my most recent post, we can either choose to accept what’s happening and trust God or begrudging stomp our feet and refuse to move forward in life. Then we miss out on the many blessings God has in store for us.

Today, reflect on areas of your life where you may not be putting in the work. Perhaps the conflict could be resolved through you talking to someone. Perhaps you are actually being called to give up something in order to help someone else. Perhaps you are meant to take that risk you’ve been worrying about.

There are certainly situations in which we simply can’t do anything but pray. And that’s okay. But just take the time to figure out whether God is calling you to take action.

Ultimately, it is crucial to pray in order to strengthen our relationship with God and to have peace about situations. But nothing can be done if we aren’t willing to follow God’s call on our lives.

You can certainly pray for strength, perseverance, and clarity. That’s a wonderful thing to do. But after that, just go for it! You can do this, I believe in you. And most of all, God is with you, so you have nothing to be afraid of ❤

If God is for us, who can be against us?

Romans 8:31