Take the Very Hardest Thing~Becoming a Woman of Strength

I was recently asked to speak at a Ladies Tea that our church held. I thought that I would share the talk that I prepared for that event . . .  I pray that the Lord may use it as an encouragement to you! 

I remember the day clearly. It was dreary and cold and my children and I had just come down into the kitchen for breakfast. My spirits were low. I felt joyless and alone. We had recently moved to Wisconsin from Rhode Island. My husband and I shared a car at that point and I was home each day of the week with my two little children while my husband was at work. I felt discouraged. As David so aptly described it in the Psalms, "my soul was downcast within me." My husband and I had come with our family to Wisconsin out of obedience to a calling that the Lord placed upon our lives. I was absolutely convinced of that. But the day in and day out obedience in a different place where I was struggling to adjust with two very little children was difficult. 

I remember thinking, half-praying in my mind as I stood at the old porcelain sink washing dishes--I don't have the strength for this. I honestly believed that I didn't. I had relocated halfway across the country and I missed my family and friends--I did not know at that point how long it would be before I saw my family again, my husband worked long days, we were on an extremely tight budget and the cold weather did not help my mood. 

Immediately as that thought came to me--that I didn't have the strength--I heard the Lord speak to my heart--"the joy of the Lord is your strength." And this thought came from outside of my downtrodden mood--I knew very clearly that the Spirit of the Lord was communicating with me. 

Immediately, in that moment, the Lord gave me strength. Joy flooded my heart and the day did not seem dreary anymore. The thought kept coming to me --the joy of the Lord is your strength, the joy of the Lord is your strength.  The Lord replaced my unrest and sadness with a peace that passes understanding and a great joy in and though my circumstances. 

The joy of the Lord is our strength. 

That is what I have found over and over again in this past year and a half and throughout my life. That He is my strength and that He is able to give me strength when I feel like I cannot do something or feel something or be something. 

He is my strength--and yours, too---in whatever circumstances we face--

And I don't want to try to pretend to understand completely the circumstances that God has placed you in. Some of you have faced or are facing very difficult roads. I have experienced very dark times in my own life where I felt utterly forsaken and abandoned by God. And I can only say that the Lord Himself must come to you in those circumstances and give you His strength. He will--He is the same God who gave strength to Christ Jesus to face the death of Calvary. He is able to give strength in the darkest place even in the shadow of death.  He will come to you in your circumstances just where you realize that you cannot handle them without Him.

I have found so many times that when I try to produce "strength" in and through my own efforts, I always fail and become discouraged, whereas when I rely upon Jesus Christ and wait upon Him, He supplies me with strength at just the time when I need it. 

We receive strength when we relinquish our own efforts to produce it and allow Him to work out His strength in and though our weakness. He says to us in Philippians 4:13 "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness. "

The paradox of His strength comes in here--that we know His strength when we humble ourselves in weakness before Him. 

That is where He makes us strong. That is where He fills us. That is where we receive joy and strength to face our circumstances whatever they may be. 

His strength is made perfect in weakness.

The Lord makes each person different, but each one with a capability of knowing His strength in weakness. I have a personality that is naturally reserved and introverted. So when the Lord spoke to me about 16 years ago, calling me to begin a ministry of hospitality to missionaries, pastors and their families, and fellow believers, it was a surprise to me.

That is the reason that we came to Wisconsin--we took a step of faith after many years of prayer and seeking the Lord's will in where He wanted us to begin the ministry He called us to.  We saw His hand in so many countless ways and were convinced of His leading us here.

But coming here was a step that I would not have naturally taken. I am by nature an introverted, quiet person, a creature of habit. I loved New England--loved it-- with its history and haunts, with its charm and feel. I am not a thrill seeker or an adventure-taker. I enjoy eating at the same restaurant, drinking the same flavor of coffee from the same cup day after day, month after month. I used to walk a lot for exercise and I would hesitate to change my familiar route, even for years. I find comfort in routine.

In all honesty, I did not want to come here. I dreaded coming here. 

But I wanted to obey the Lord--more than anything else--and He convinced me that His grace would be sufficient for me here--and it has. 

As believers, as Christian women, we are not limited by our natural capabilities. Instead, the Lord calls us to bring our weakness, our lack, and our shortcomings to Him, so that we may experience His power working through us and the glory may be His and not ours. He loves to work where we cannot see a way, even in ourselves.

I was introduced to the writings of Lilias Trotter through one of Elisabeth Elliots' books years ago. Lilias Trotter was a missionary to the Algiers who was physically weak--initially, Missions boards refused her as a missionary candidate because of her health. She paid her own way and the Lord greatly used her there until her death. Lilias Trotter wrote--Take the very hardest thing in your life – the place of difficulty, outward or inward, and expect God to triumph gloriously in that very spot.  Just there He can bring your soul into blossom.”   

Take the very hardest  thing--

Take whatever you struggle with--whatever it is you think that you cannot handle in your life and offer it to Him. Offer it to Him in surrender. And then see what He does as you patiently wait upon Him.. 

It is and has been the stories of missionaries and Christian women like Lilias Trotter, Amy Carmichael, and Susannah Wesley who have been such an encouragement to me in my own life to follow the Lord no matter how inadequate, weak, or helpless I may feel. Feelings come and go--but the strength of the Lord is a continual promise. Take His strength, regardless of your feelings and lean into Him as your strength. You will find Him every time you humble yourself under His mighty hand. And you will be strong in Him.

Take the very hardest thing, and surrender it to the Lord.

Read the word of God, memorize it, learn hymns, read missionary biographies. If you have small children and are unable to find that "quiet" time with the Lord that you crave, listen to sermon tapes or solid ministers on the local Christian radio station. This has been a tremendous help to me, and something that I always remember my Mom doing when my sisters and I were very little. 

This is how we become stronger in the Lord, how we embrace His strength--through immersing ourselves in his Word and promises. We become strong through admitting our weakness and then embracing His strength-- not trying to take the bull by the horns and show everyone how capable we are in our own strength.

He will enable us to do whatever it is that He has called us to do. 

Do you feel weak in any particular area? Good! It is an opportunity to take the Lord's strength. 

Take the hardest thing--and expect God to come through there in your life. 

This is how we become strong women who trust in the Lord--

Strong in difficult, painful marriages . . . 

Strong in the midst of health problems . . . 

Strong when we are faced with an impossible relationship . . . 

Strong in the midst of financial strain. 

Take the hardest thing--and offer it to the Lord in obedience and surrender. 

Remember that the Lord uses weak people who hold onto His strength.

The world tells us that to be strong women we need to assert ourselves, demand our rights, do what makes us feel good, and pursue our dreams and goals selfishly, that we need to be brash and headstrong and in control. 

But this is not real strength. Because strength is not what comes from within ourselves--it is a gift that comes through Someone greater than ourselves--true strength comes from Christ, the One who humbled himself, who laid aside His own rights, who forfeited an earthly crown for a heavenly kingdom, who took the last place and washed the feet of His disciples. 

True strength comes through surrender, through yielding oneself to the will of the Father, not grasping at whatever makes us feel happy and fulfilled in the immediate moment.

True strength comes from Jesus Christ. 

True strength is eyes of steel focused on the glory of the Father, hearts of compassion for a dying world around us, and a face set like flint to do the will of the Father--whatever that may be for your life. It is a strength that the world cannot understand. And--

His strength will crown us with beauty

His strength will clothe us with dignity

His strength will cover us with grace. 

We will be able to laugh at the days to come because we know that He holds them perfectly in His hand. 

I'd like to end with this quote from Elisabeth Elliot because it speaks so wonderfully to this subject-- We are called to be women. The fact that I am a woman does not make me a different kind of Christian, but the fact that I am a Christian does make me a different kind of woman. For I have accepted God's idea of me, and my whole life is an offering back to Him of all that I am and all that He wants me to be.

May we be clothed with strength and dignity and laugh at the days to come--because He is our strength. 

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