The Battle is the Lord's

I pull my gloves off and toss them in the trash can by my leg. I twist the sink handles and let the water run over my fingers as I scrub them, as though I was scrubbing the stress of the day away too. I love being a nurse. Besides Jesus and telling people about Jesus, being a nurse is my greatest joy and passion. But, sometimes, stressful day after stressful day of intense medical work can wear me down. The last couple of months we’ve had an uptick in medevacs, traumas and the severity of medical situations we’re attempting to triage and treat. Everything has seemed to stretch my team, me and our combined medical knowledge and experience to their limits.

At the same time, I’ve been reading about the life of David. Now there was a guy that could understand significant stress and beyond. He was raised from being a nobody to becoming a national champion and right-hand man to the reigning king, only to be chased and persecuted at every turn. Then he became the leader of an elite force of men, later he became the leader of Judah and then the whole kingdom of Israel all before he was 30 years old. I can sympathize with this guy (on a much smaller scale). God has been using David’s story to remind me of truths about God and about how a godly person is to relate to God during times of significant stress, stretching and strain. In every scenario that David encountered, his reaction was to seek God first, ask God’s advice and then move forward in God’s power for God’s glory and honor.

As I turned off the water and surveyed our little treatment room I thought about this. In life (not just mission work) it’s easy to feel overwhelmed and to want to just give up when things are stressful and pushing you beyond your limits. But what if we followed the example of David? What if, when we didn’t know what to do, we asked God first? What if we faced our biggest life problems that seem to be mocking us and our God with a steady eye and declared the truth: that God is stronger and He will win. And then to move forward in bold faith, knowing God would rescue and help us for His glory and because He loves us.

Although I’ve been feeling stressed lately and definitely stretched to my limits I’ve been trying to follow David’s example and set God at the center of all I do and to follow Him and not me in every situation. Only then will I be able to slay the metaphorical “giants” in my world, lead with integrity and wisdom and bring God glory in all I do.

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