Pressed down. Feeling lost, alone, and afraid. If any of these describe you, you may be down in the valley. Perhaps you feel deflated-like the wind has been knocked out of you. It hurts to look back and it's no use looking forward. Friend, I hope I can encourage you that no matter how down you are, you don't have to stay there. You can be down, but not defeated. One of the devil's tricks is to get us at our lowest place and then begin to attack our minds in a way that causes us to believe we could never get back up again. The devil's ploy is to make us buy into the lie that we should just stay where we are, accepting our fate, no matter how depressing it looks or how miserable we may end up. DO NOT accept defeat; whether you see it or not, your victory could be on its way. God is with you wherever you are. In your lowest place, He speaks peace and life. God brings victory in the valley. Why would you accept defeat when you serve a God who has never lost a battle?
You're not in a battle because God doesn't love you anymore. You're not down because you did something wrong. You're not struggling because you're not good enough. You're not a failure. And you're not defeated. You're not fighting this battle on your own. God is fighting beside you. There are always going to be those times in life where you just feel overwhelmed by your circumstances. It weighs you down and you carry it around until you end up in a dark place. Then what? Do you just stay down? Allow yourself to feel defeat?
2020: a time for defeat? That's what it's been, right? If we're being honest, this year stinks...all of it.
COVID-19
Quarantine
Mask mandate
Fear
Chaos
Riots
Even death
Negative news after negative news.
We have allowed ourselves to feel this defeat and accept it. 2020 isn't getting any better, as far as we can tell. It's not just this year. There have been other years when we have allowed ourselves to feel the same defeat, but this year seems different. It's like there is a spirit of heaviness hanging around that we can't seem to shake. The spirit of fear, anxiety, and depression is running rampant in our society. The "light at the end of the tunnel" seems to have disappeared completely. Hope seems lost. We are at an all-time low. So how do we allow ourselves to feel all of it, but yet, not be defeated? We're down, that's for sure. Life has thrown us more curve balls in the past year than we know what to do with.
Are you feeling dead inside? That's when you know it's time...to rise up. In my last blog, I wrote about stepping out of the old. What I didn't acknowledge is how dead you may feel before a change takes place. Maybe you feel as though you'll never get back up again. But by the grace of God, you can and you will. You don't have to live defeated. Lazarus didn't.
Inside a tomb, we would think that's the end. Surely, Lazarus and all his family/friends knew when he took his last breath, that he would be down for the rest of time. Apparently Jesus didn't get the message. To Him, it was another opportunity to perform a miracle. It was another way to prove that death is not final and defeat is not your destiny. Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead. Yes, Lazarus was down, but even death could not defeat the plans Jesus had for him. He became a living testimony of the power of Jesus. Lazarus was down, but not defeated. He was called out of the grave. The dead man stepped out of the old and into new life.
It doesn't matter who you are or how pressed down you've been. Defeat is not your destiny and death is not final. If you're feeling dead inside, you can rise up. Jesus is calling out to you because you are not meant to stay where you are. You serve a God who has never lost a battle and who is constantly fighting for you. There is no reason to accept defeat. You may feel it, but you don't have to live there anymore. Maybe you don't feel God like you once did. That doesn't mean He isn't there. The only time you will remain defeated is when you give up on God and when you decide to stay down. Instead, why don't you rise up? Take a breath. Let Jesus pull you out of the valley you've felt trapped in for so long.
You may be down, but you don't have to be defeated.
2 Corinthians 2:8-9 (NKJV)
We are hard pressed on every side, yet not crushed; we are perplexed, but not in despair;
persecuted but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed.