Finding You AgainExemplo

On July 16, 2016, 1,000 single moms filled the altar at the National TLSM Single Moms Conference in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. 

They cried. They praised. They poured their hearts out to God, as they experienced His presence that weekend. And it was a beautiful thing to see single mothers from all over the country gathering in that environment to worship the one True King.

But it would be silly to think that that conference, that event, was something that just happened without planning. The ladies didn’t just get out of bed that morning and decide they would attend a conference. The event planners didn’t just awake that weekend with an idea of holding a single mom’s conference. It took planning and preparing on both sides – the hosts and the attendees. It took rearranging schedules. It took the vision and planning and preparation of leaders from years gone by who had paid the price. Events take planning. Change takes planning and initiative, and often it isn’t easy to do.

It isn’t easy to make the decision to change your life. It isn’t easy to prepare for the future, as a single mom. Maybe your budget, your parenting style, or your friendship circle looks much different than it did just a few short weeks, months, or years ago. Finding strength and purpose through change isn’t easy.

How do you have the strength to move on? How do you have the strength to parent alone for sometimes as much as 20 years? How do you have the strength to step out in faith in an area when it seems impossible? How do you find purpose, when everything you’ve ever known is gone?

It’s okay to not be strong for a season. Consider the story in I Samuel 14. Jonathan and his armor bearer decided to go to the enemy’s camp before the battle was scheduled to begin. As they began to fight the enemy, angels appeared. The enemy was so confused that they began to fight themselves. The enemy lost the battle before it was even scheduled to begin! God wants you to know that whatever battle you are facing today, the victory has already been won. Jonathan’s army was small and weary. They were not expected to win. But with God on their side, the victory was theirs. The same is true for you. You may be weary or weak today, but take courage in knowing your God isn’t any of those things!

Strength isn’t about your battle today. It’s more about what you do, while you’re in the battle. Your battle may last a while, honestly. In other words, finding purpose & strength can be hard – really hard. Strength is faith. It is Jesus manifested. Strength is so beautiful, when found. It’s worth the battle. It’s worth the fight! When you learn the “why” behind the battle, and truly find your purpose, you will be forever changed. 

Here are four things you need to know about strength and purpose: 

1. Strength is about pushing through, when everything else inside you says quit. Have there been times in your life when you wanted to quit? Have there been times when the kids wouldn’t obey, the boss is unreasonable, and the bill collectors keep calling…and all you want to do is throw the towel in? Of course there have! We all want to quit. But strength is that deep, deep power within you, given by your Savior that won’t allow you to give up. Strength isn’t about quitting. It is about the power of God that is rising up on the inside of us. That power is our strength. That strength allows us to find our purpose. Strength in the battle is about pushing through. Strength is fighting when you want to quit. Hell hath no fury like a woman of God who chooses to rise up, pray, praise, and press through. That’s strength. 
2. Our purpose is often found in hardship. We don’t like to hear that, do we? When women who can do 50 push-ups or maybe hold the plank position for several minutes, it is admirable. It takes practice. One doesn’t wake up in the morning with the ability to run a 26-mile marathon or lift several hundred pounds. That strength takes practice! The same can be true about our purpose. We know our purpose on the earth is to honor the Lord and to tell others about him. But what does that look like? How do we do that, when life is so hard that we can barely get through the day? Your strength comes through the hardships! It comes through learning to battle well and endure and exercise that muscle. Strength isn’t developed on the mountain-top, when everything that your foot touches is blessed. Strength is developed in the valley, when all you have is the promise of God, but no evidence of such promise. You’re going to have to go through some things that build your character, strengthen your integrity, and test your faith. Strength is birthed out of desperation. He’s developing strength – deep, in the depths of your soul. And this hardship will be worth it. Your purpose may one day be to walk with another mom through her hardship. Or maybe you were called to lead a Bible study that you wouldn’t have otherwise led, unless you’d gone through the fire. And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them. Romans 8:28 
3. The strength you possess is about who possesses you. Strength is really in understanding how weak you are. This is where most of us get into trouble. We try, in our own strength, to clean up good enough to get into to church and to do this Christian life well. If you are anything like me, you have made plenty of mistakes. And maybe you had a significant life change… and you work really hard to fit in, to be perfect, to measure up…but you can’t do it in your own strength. You will fail and you will give up. The good news is, not by our strength or our might, but by His Spirit. Strength is not about doing church well. I can’t do church well another second. Strength is not about legalism and traditionalism and a set of rules that none of us can fully follow anyway. It’s about having an encounter with our King. Strength is understanding the God we belong to set the sun in the sky, the stars in the night, and commands the sea with the sounds of His voice. 
4. Strength doesn’t always look like we think it should. Strength will come in unexpected ways and at unexpected times. Maybe you’ve been praying for days, weeks, even years about a situation, and often you are weary. But all of a sudden, in a day, in a moment, God shows upon the scene and does the miraculous. I am reminded of the story of the dying slave in Luke 7:1-10. The Roman officer sent for Jesus to come heal his slave. Ultimately, the slave is healed, but he isn’t healed when Jesus prays for him, fasts, lays hands on him, or even sees him. He is healed by the faith of another. That’s strange to me. He didn’t do anything to be healed, except ask, and it didn’t come in the traditional form that maybe I thought it should. But the healing and strength came, nonetheless. Someone reading this today just needs to know that God sees you and that he will work things out for your good, in His timing, His way.

When we walk in authority, the authority Jesus paid for us to have, we begin to shift perspective and see ourselves differently. We see ourselves stronger. We see our purposes as bigger. Your strength is about the others in your life --- the lost – the dying ---- the broken. Your hurt, your battle, was all for them.

Is. 41:9-10, “I have called you back from the ends of the earth, saying you are my servant. For I have chosen you and will not throw you away. Don’t be afraid, for I am with you. Don’t be discouraged, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you. I will hold you up with my victorious right hand.”

Is. 45:5-7, “I am the Lord; there is no other God. I have equipped you for battle, though you don’t even know me, so all the world from east to west will know there is no other God. I am the Lord, there is no other. I create the light and make darkness. I send good times and bad times. I, the Lord, am the one who does the things.

Points to Ponder: 

• If someone would’ve asked you 10 years ago about your hopes and dreams, what would you have said? 
• How has that changed today? 
• What are some areas where you are weak? 
• Who do you know that is strong in those areas? 
• Take a sheet of paper and list your top 3 strengths. What are you really good at? 
• How can those strengths be used for the purposes of God? 
• What Scripture(s) can you find on God’s strength?