I’ve never been one of those people who has it all together. Actually, I’m a person who has come apart. Rode away from my home in an ambulance and spent several days in the hospital recovering this past year. Sometimes people break. It happens. And I’ve realized it’s not the end of the world. It may be the end of yourself, but that could be the beginning of a grace-filled life.

These days I’m learning I’m not in control (admitting this is a little scary), but God is in control, and I can rest in that. I can focus on God’s promises. What He says is true: “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you” Hebrews 13:5. We must remember God is with us and for us. That we may face trial after trial on this earth, but the LORD delivers us every time. Every single time. “The righteous person may have many troubles, but the LORD delivers him from them all” Psalm 34:19.

Even when things are hard, when all hell breaks loose and you’re holding on for dear life, God is good. Amid all kinds of bad, God is good. We must remember: God is good and faithful and true. Because this is a raging battle for many hearts: to know God is always good, and to believe what He says about our circumstances. To see the sky like Elijiah of the Bible saw it when he told his servant, “Go and look toward the sea.” The servant replied, “There is nothing there.” Seven times Elijiah said, “Go back.” The seventh time the servant reported, “A cloud as small as a man’s hand is rising from the sea.”

Elijiah didn’t look at his circumstances (the sky was clear and blue when God told him it would rain like mad), he looked at God and the rain eventually came just as God said it would. But even after this, Elijiah grew weary and ran off to hide in the desert where he cried, “I have had enough, LORD. Take my life; I am no better than my ancestors.”

But God didn’t take Elijiah’s life. He sent an angel to encourage Elijiah. To feed and strengthen him in the wilderness. The angel of the LORD said, “Get up and eat, for the journey is too much for you.” After this, Elijiah got up, ate and drank, and continued on to the mountain where God revealed himself to the weary Elijiah.

The LORD said, “Go out and stand on the mountain in the presence of the LORD, for the LORD is about to pass by.” Then a great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart and shattered the rocks before the LORD, but the LORD was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but the LORD was not in the earthquake. After the earthquake came a fire, but the LORD was not in the fire. And after the fire came a gentle whisper. When Elijiah heard it, he pulled his cloak over his face and went out and stood at the mouth of the cave.” 

Elijiah experienced his LORD in the gentle whisper. Even God’s greatest saints have grown weary like Elijiah, and it is the gentle whisper of God that strengthens them. After God encouraged Elijiah, the LORD put his prophet back to work.

Here is a little story I love:

There is a fable about the way the birds got their wings at the beginning. They were first made without wings. Then God made the wings and put them down before the wingless birds and said to them, “Come, take up these burdens and bear them.” 

The birds had lovely plumage and sweet voices; they could sing, and their feathers gleamed in the sunshine, but they could not soar in the air. They hesitated at first when bidden to take up the burdens that lay at their feet, but soon they obeyed, and taking up the wings in their beaks, laid them on their shoulders to carry them.

For a little while the load seemed heavy and hard to bear, but presently, as they went on carrying the burdens, folding them over their hearts, the wings grew fast to their little bodies, and soon they discovered how to use them, and were lifted by them up into the air ~their weights became wings.

Rarely does God remove the burdens from our lives, all those trials tiring us out and breaking us down. What God often does is revive us in the midst of our troubles. He gives us the strength and the grace to persevere, to carry our burdens and even fly with them.