Encouragement for the Weary

Are you in a season where you are in winter, in a cave, it's dark and difficult and every day feels like a wrestle? 

Or are you in a season where you see the tender tendrils of hope starting to bud in your life once again? 

No matter where you are - I pray today's episode encourages you: Jesus is on the move in the lives of His people. He is bringing forth fruit in freedom, and starting to show us the fruition of the hard seasons. A deeper faith, a stronger confidence, a richer understanding of His love in your own life. And I believe He is gracing us and equipping us for this next season, because there are people in your life and mine who need the glorious gospel of Jesus. 

Scriptures Referenced:

• Song of Solomon 2:10-13
• Galatians 6:13
• Psalm 126:5
• John 15
• Matthew 6

You can find me on Instagram / Threads

Transcript

Carrie 0:05

Hey everyone, welcome to a brand new episode of Honey from the Rock. I am Carrie, your host, and I am so glad you're here. And I am going to hop right into what I want to talk about today, which is not necessarily a set scripture, and here's my the life lessons I've learned from it, or digging into it like I have in the past. But this is more an observation from the lives of people around me and my own life as to what the Lord seems to be doing. And I don't know where you are in your walk with Jesus. I don't know at what point you are on your spiritual and discipleship journey with the Lord. But I pray that as I speak from the heart and try to make sense today, that you are not only encouraged in your walk with Jesus, but that he ministers his kindness, his good pleasure, his love, his um, his desire to give us good things and to keep us from the deception and the entanglement of the evil one from the devil. And and that we would experience just however he wants to reveal himself to us today as we talk about him, what he's doing, his character, and and how he is how he might be working in your life and how I am seeing him work in the lives of people around me and in my own life.

Carrie 1:41

And as I go through this, consider the season you're in. Are you weary? Are you tired? Does it feel like the Lord is digging and digging and digging and there's no reprieve? Because I have some friends who feel like that. And I have actually just come out of a season like that, a very long season. Um, or are you in a place where the Lord's dealing with things in your life and he's uprooting some things and he is freeing you from things? And at the same time, he there is that there's that the tentative tendrils of hope are starting to bloom on the vine of your life. I don't know where you are, but I have seen recently in the lives of literally like nine or ten friends, and again, and my own life, that the Lord is at work and he is on the move, and he's on the move in a way that the culling and unrooting of certain things from our lives, certain dispositions we've we've held on to, or certain places where we know that what we've believed isn't quite right, but we don't know how to uproot it, that the Lord is moving in these areas, that he is uprooting lies and deception, places where we've been in bondage. And it's difficult, it's hard, it's painful, and yet again, at the same time, there is this sense of anticipation that it's not just a season of the Lord just having to dig stuff up, but that he is digging stuff up and he is preparing. He is getting the vines of our life ready for what he wants to do next.

Carrie 3:53

And sometimes after going through long seasons of lots, not just pruning, but lots of uprooting. I mean, seasons where the Lord has come through with his plow because we have said yes to him and we want to know him and we want to know his word and we want to follow him in his goodness because he is a good vine dresser. The father brings the plow and he helps us break up the fallow ground of our heart. Those hard places that have not been watered, that don't just easily turn over and yield up rich, beautiful soil, but you know, have been hard and sunparched and difficult. And the Lord is digging and plowing, and he waters and he refreshes, but then he's digging and he's plowing. Those seasons can feel never-ending, and the Lord knows what I mean by that. Um, and they can be exhausting. But there's something about the season when the Lord is readying the ground for seed that he wants to bring harvest.

Carrie 5:04

And I feel like the lives of the people that I've mentioned, that is what I'm seeing. It's not just the Lord coming in and saying, I want to free you from these things or these dispositions and you displease me. We need to get rid of them, we need to deal with this. No. His kindness leads us to repentance, but his kindness also says, Beloved, the winter is over, the spring has come. Which is from Song of Solomon 2. And let me actually read it in context. So this is Song of Solomon 2, 10, 11, 12, and 13. My beloved speaks and says to me, Arise, my love, my beautiful one, and come away. For behold, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone, the flowers appear on the earth, the time of singing has come, and the voice of the turtled dove is heard in our land. The fig tree ripens its figs, and the vines are in bloom, they give forth fragrance. Arise, my love, my beautiful one, and come away.

Carrie 6:17

Which I love that picture. But when I was quoting the arise, uh not the arise, my love part, but winter has gone and the rain has come. That rain being the flowing living waters of Jesus, right? The the water we need in our own lives for fruit to come forth within us. And I just get the sense that while this is still a hard season, because the Lord is still is still pruning and cutting things away, there's been, I've seen a shift in the lives of some of my friends, in my own life, in the life of my family, where it's it's moved from the darkness, the dankness of winter, feeling like you're living in a cave, you know, and you don't know where the bear is hibernating and might wake up and eat you. Um, you know, or maybe even a season of just feeling like you're always waiting for the other shoe to drop.

Carrie 7:26

Um, it feels like it's coming out of that into a time where the Lord is not only going to do or bring forth good things in life, but that through the difficulty that we've endured, through the suffering that we've walked through with Jesus, what is actually going to come forth is more beautiful fruit, fruit that abides, a deeper knowing of Jesus, a sweeter union with him, a faith that has a deeper and and more unshakable foundation. And it's it is it's it's it's just like reading those verses out of Song of Solomon. You know, the the rain is the rain is coming to soften the ground. The rain is coming to feed the seeds that the Lord has planted in those difficult and hard times. The rain is coming so that the fruit that the Lord wants to see bloom and come forth in our lives begins to show itself. And I just have this sense of anticipation, not that life is going to suddenly be easy and that roses and flowers and bees and all of the things in life's gonna be a musical and we're just gonna sing, you know. Um not like that, nope.

Carrie 9:08

I uh but that the seasons that we have sown in tears, we will reap in joy, which I think is out of the Psalms. That the tears that have been kept in the Lord's bottle, he knows them and he sees them, but that he wants to bring us into a place of learning true delight in him, feeling his good pleasure, knowing his joy, experiencing his love, and walking in the confidence of his Holy Spirit, and and walking in in union with him in in a way that is full of joy, unspeakable, and full of glory, as Paul says. And again, it's it's it's not this all of a sudden everything's just gonna be happy clappy, happy days are here again.

Carrie 10:16

But that no matter what comes and what ministry he's called us into, that the season that we have been in of difficulty and and tears shed and questions asked with no answers, and wrestles with the Lord and coming out of the season, maybe with a limp and tired, that there is not only refreshing coming, but the ministry that the Lord is calling each of us to, the people he is calling us to, we are going to end up being a cold cup of water to them because we will we will be able to minister Jesus to them, not only in power, as the Lord says, that he gives us power, but to be able to minister him in comfort, in silence, in joy, in sorrow, in kindness and compassion, in accountability and immovable trust in the inerrant word of God, however, it looks and whatever he's calling us to, the Lord, we are going to see the fruition of the difficult seasons that we have been in.

Carrie 11:35

And I know in some places, you know, that that can sound just like a lot of happy clappy nonsense. But I can on my in my own journey with Jesus, where for a lot of years I had a wrong view of suffering. I knew suffering was necessary, but I had really worked myself into a place where I thought the only disposition the Lord was pleased with was suck it up and get over it. And in this last year, I have learned and Jesus has shown me that not only is he pleased when we come to him with whatever we are feeling, with whatever we are thinking, but he is pleased when we come to him and we tell him, I don't know what to do with this. I don't know how to process this, I don't know how to handle this, I'm angry, I am frustrated, I am hurt, I am grieving, I am sad, I am happy, I'm joyful, whatever it is that, and I know I've said it several times, but there is nothing that we can throw at the Lord that he can't handle. And in those times of wrestling and darkness and difficulty, the willingness to stick with the Lord, to trust him, to trust his character, to know that what he says about himself is the absolute truth, that he is a good father and he desires to give his children good things, that suffering is necessary. Suffering is a part of life, and it is a part of the discipleship journey.

Carrie 13:32

And yet there are days where we absolutely need to have a stiff upper lip, as the British say, and keep calm and carry on and endure. And there are days in our prayer chamber, in the secret place, with trusted friends or trusted family where we can break down and say, I don't know how much more I can endure, Lord. Please help me. Please help me. I'm so tired. Please help me. I'm growing weary. Please, please hold me, Lord. I need you to move. All of that, all of that can happen. And when it does happen between us and the Lord, and and we surrender ourselves to him in that way, and we start to let him work and we let him uproot and we let him pour in.

Carrie 14:25

And we continue every day to make the choice to trust his character, to trust his person, to believe him, even when it's difficult and when the circumstances of our life look around and seem to scream at us in every single corner, "There's no reason why you should trust the Lord." We can look at Jesus, we can look at the cross. We can look at the agony that he suffered. We can look at the beautiful gospel he has given us, the sacrifice of the Father of His only Son, the separation that Jesus experienced from the Father, the giving of the Holy Spirit to us and say, it doesn't matter how everything looks around me, even though it's difficult, I will still choose to trust the Lord.

Carrie 15:12

And Paul tells us in Galatians 6 that we will reap in due season if we don't faint, right? We will, if we don't grow weary in doing good, we will see a harvest. And I think that's part of what the stirring of the waters that I'm sensing and that I'm seeing is that there have been many people in the body of Jesus who desperately love him, who want to do his work and fulfill his call on their lives, and yet have been walking in seasons where life just seems to keep coming with blow after blow after blow. But that there is a harvest coming that we can reap. There is a settledness in the Lord that we've been praying for, or confidence in him that we've been desiring, or a deeper, more rooted faith that has a better holy spiritual grasp on the word, or a deeper sense of knowing that not only is Jesus real and he is who he says he is, but that he loves you. He loves me and he has died for us and he has resurrected and he calls us his own.

Carrie 16:52

And we know people in our lives who need that glorious, beautiful hope. They need that life-altering encounter with the living God and Jesus and the Father and the Holy Spirit in the way that they've chosen to do this, is that they they show that through the lives of their people. And I I just I want to, I know I say it all the time, but I do. I just want to encourage you. You have no clue the impact that you have already had on people in your life by how you have wrestled with the Lord in the dark and difficult seasons of your life. I know it wasn't pretty. It was not pretty for me. It was gross, guys. This over here, I'm gonna tell you right now, it was not cute. There was lots of crying, lots of snot, lots of wondering how long this was going to last, many nights of just saying, I mean, crying out with David, how long, oh Lord? How long? Are you even hearing me? Are my prayers coming to you? Are they rising to you as a sweet incense, or are they just bouncing off my ceiling?

Carrie 18:10

And and and wrestling with Jesus in that. And now seeing the Lord lead me out of that season, I'm seeing I can feel that all of that wrestling, all of that questioning, all of that seeking the Lord and and and and asking him to show himself and wrestling and and sometimes just living life and trusting that the Lord would work it all out, because I didn't have the energy anymore, all of it. It was a mess. Like I said, it was a mess. Coming out of that season and into this one, I can I can I can sense, I can discern the shift in my heart, the deeper trust that I have in the Lord. The overwhelming and yet infinitely comforting knowledge that Jesus is near. He is with me, he is the friend who sticks closer than a brother. And and that I don't have to live life, and you don't have to live life in a place of waiting for the other shoe to drop.

Carrie 19:42

But that we can trust him. We can trust him when it feels like when it rains, it pours, in in the heartbreak of life, in the grief of life, in the in the pain of life, and also in the joy and in the happiness and the delight. And that those things truly do all mingle together in the Lord. But that in this season we have no idea the things that the Lord has given to us, the gifts that he has tucked away in our hearts and in our spirits, that we are going to see come to fruition in this season of ministry. Whatever that ministry looks like in your life, whether whether you're the you're the kind of person that the Lord uses to randomly run into people at coffee shops and feel that prompting of the Lord to say, pray for that person, or have a conversation with that person, or you're the kind of person who you know the people in your life you need to pray for, or you need to have conversations with, or whether you just walk with Jesus and you just keep going, and again, you have no clue how brightly your light is shining to point people to Jesus, to his realness, to his truth, to his glory and authority and and his power to not only save us, but to bring us into a place where we can walk through difficulty and we can we can be buffeted by the waves and yet say with David, lead me to the rock that is higher than I am.

Carrie 21:40

And so I I pray that if you are still in that that difficulty season where you are being buffeted, that you Lord, that you would strengthen whoever is listening to this with endurance. With your comfort and your care, Holy Spirit, that you would witness to them that you are you are not only near, but that you are holding them, that you see them, you know them, and you love them, Lord. And for those, Lord, those of us who feel the shift and that we are coming out of coming out of real wrestling and meaty difficult seasons into seeing the fruit of the preparation and the wrestling and the suffering and the difficulty...

Carrie 22:35

Lord, that we would rejoice with you, that we would be watchful for how you are leading us, that we would be sensitive sensitive to you, Holy Spirit, as you lead us. Lord, I I pray for every person listening to this podcast right now, Lord Jesus, that we would we would revel in your love, that we would surrender to your lordship and your authority over our lives, that we would trust your leading and your hand, and that our lives would reflect your glory, that we would be people of gratitude, Lord. Thankful, thankful men and women who are shining your light, who are reflecting you into the dark and broken places of this world, Lord, not with a faith that can't with withstand the storms, but that we can be Ebenezer's, Lord, stones of remembrance, oaks of righteousness to people who look at our lives and say, I don't, I don't know how they made it through that. And we can tell them we we know how, because it was you, Lord Jesus, it's been you, it is always you, Father. I...

Carrie 24:17

Friends, I pray I am praying for you. And I thank you for praying for me because I know many of you do. And I pray that as Paul tells us that, you know, if we sow, if we sow to the flesh, right, we reap destruction. But when we sow into the spirit, we reap eternal life from the spirit, and that we we would not be discouraged in doing good, because in due time we will reap if we if we do not become weary. And so, friends, let's press on. Press on to know the Lord, press on to what he's called us to do, and trust, trust his hand, trust his work, trust his word and his character, that he who is faithful, who has called us, whatever he is working in our lives, and whatever he is doing, he will see it to fruition. He will do it. Amen.