Remember These Truths When You Feel Depleted

I’ll be honest—I’m feeling a tad depleted. A culmination of things have led me to this place, the most significant being my mother’s death and the necessary busyness during the eight weeks prior. But add to that the craziness of 2020, right?

You know what I mean. The pandemic has ripped away normalcy as we’ve known it. We’re left wondering how to move forward when we can barely see past today. The rules have changed, and they continue changing, and we have to change with them. What will they be tomorrow, and what will that mean for us?  It’s anyone’s guess.

I miss my friends. I miss my family. I miss my church family. I worshiped in my home church a couple of weeks ago for the first time since January. The sanctuary is built to hold six hundred or more, but now it holds fifty. It felt so wrong.

And then there’s the political unrest. So many opinions. So much hostility. Trying to sort it out makes my head throb.

I’m developing a fresh appreciation for the psalmist’s questions:

“Why am I discouraged? Why is my heart so sad?” (Psalm 42:5 NLT)

Taking time to think about them and write the answers has proven therapeutic.

But here’s the thing I’ve discovered

I can’t linger there too long or I’ll sink deeper into discouragement. Instead, I have to resolutely follow the psalmist’s example and choose to place my focus elsewhere—on God:

“I will put my hope in God!  I will praise him again–my Savior and my God!” (Psalm 42:5-6)

I will put my hope in God. I will praise Him again. I will. I will.

What enables me to choose this response and follow through? Knowing that God is who He says He is. Here are three declarations about His nature that help renew my strength when I’m feeling depleted:

God is Wise

What is wisdom, anyway?

One definition is “the power to see and the inclination to choose the best and highest goal, together with the surest means of attaining that goal.”

God alone knows what He wants to accomplish through the world events of 2020, and God alone knows the best means of accomplishing that goal.

I don’t know the answers but I can trust Him and the process He allows because He knows everything about everything.

“Great is our Lord and mighty in power; his understanding has no limit.” (Psalm 147:5)

God is Powerful

Just as there is no limit to His wisdom, so there’s no end to His strength. He spoke the universe into being, split the Red Sea, healed the lepers, and raised the dead. I might view a challenging situation as impossible, but hope is restored when I remember this truth,

“For nothing will be  impossible with God.” (Luke 1:37 ESV)

God is Good

God is good by nature, therefore everything He does is good. One definition of “good” is “beneficial.” I find renewed hope when I cling to the truth that God will never let our pain go to waste. He will always make it beneficial in some way when we work with Him in the process.

“How great is the goodness you have stored up for those who fear you. You lavish it on those who come to you for protection, blessing them before the watching world.” (Psalm 31:19-20)