How Could He Know?

This post is also published at the Christian Women's Resource Network Blog.

Life has been pretty stressful lately. We have two folks in our household with cancer, one boy who had surgery for a broken arm, we've been quarantined because at least two of us have had whooping cough, and my 18 year-old daughter decided to move out and get an apartment on her own. Add to that typical family and holiday issues, and some days it gets kind of tough to get out of bed!

Last night I finally turned off the lights after two busy days of hosting Thanksgiving and our family tradition of 'Cookie Day' (a pretty wild festival of sugar, chocolate chips, and Chinese food). My body was exhausted but my brain just wouldn't stop. I nit-picked everything that had gone wrong, thought of all the things I needed to do, and found myself worrying about the week to come. I finally gave up and got out of bed.

I realized I hadn't read my daily Bible text for two days (I'm using The One Year Chronological Bible, New Living Translation version to read through the Bible on a yearly basis). I opened up the Book and read Romans 5:1 - 10:21.

How did God know that I would need these exact words on this exact day? The text starts out with "...we have peace with God because of what Jesus Christ our Lord has done for us...We can rejoice, too, when we run into problems and trials, for we know that they help us develop endurance....For we know how dearly God loves us." Later it talks about how "the Holy Spirit helps us in our weakness. For example, we don't know what God wants us to pray for. but the Holy Spirit prays for us with groanings that cannot be expressed in words." And further still, it reminded me that nothing can ever separate me from Christ's love, "neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow -- not even the powers of hell can separate us from God's love. No power in the sky above or in the earth below -- indeed nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord."

In the quiet of a dark household, I was filled with the love and peace of God. Right now it's easy to feel overwhelmed by the sheer number of things that are hitting our family at once. People tell me that God won't give me more than I can handle. I no longer believe that. God will give me so much more than I can handle for the sole purpose of reminding me that I have to rely on him. Until I learn that lesson I will continue to feel overwhelmed.

Yesterday is over. Tomorrow will come, but I know I won't face it alone. And for that I am eternally grateful.