WHOA

Tomorrow morning is for WHOA. Women Having Overwhelming Adversity. ;)

In listening to the hearts and watching the faces of women around me this fall, I was impressed with the load of adversity many carry. We all experience it, and from my own experience, I know that when you're "there" it can just help to know you're not alone. But it can be so hard to reach out so that you aren't alone. So our Women's Ministry Team planned to have two mornings in January for WHOA. We'll have breakfast, hear an encouraging testimony of God's help during times of trouble, share, pray, laugh, and smile. I'm not quite sure who will come (especially since the roads are covered in a RARE, let me emphasize RARE, coating of ice and snow .... I'm hearing a little "enemy interference" here...), but I know God will be sovereign over it.

How many times in the last few weeks have you been reminded that life is hard and peppered with adversity? I'm not going to make a list, because I'll get discouraged and have to go throw myself out into the snow. :) Immediately, though, events and faces and quivering voices come to mind. A single mom struggling to care for her children and herself. A wife worried her husband will lose his job, and he does. A woman weary from the financial strain of underemployment. Another tearful widow having her first holiday alone. The face of a newly moved gal that says, "I want to know and be known." My phone ringing on Christmas day to tell me an extended family member had taken his own life that morning. Adversity.

Psalm 61:2 From the end of the earth I will cry to You, when my heart is overwhelmed; lead me to the rock that is higher than I.

If we just got together to swap pain and stop there, it wouldn't be very encouraging. But "A" can also stand for "Answers." God speaks to us in our pain.

Hebrews 4:15 For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are - yet was without sin.

And so He promises to be with us in the midst of any adversity.

Isaiah 43:2 When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze.

That's so encouraging for any of us who are IN adversity now and for those of us who will experience it UP AHEAD. We will pass through waters and rivers and fires. But, "I will be with you." That's comforting. "They will not sweep over you." Glad to hear it, because sometimes it can feel like they will. "The flames will not set you ablaze;" what a relief since sometimes we can feel scorched.

Would love it if you could sit down at the table and taste my new french toast recipe (thanks to my mother-in-law) with us in the morning, share your adversity, pray over others & be prayed for, and read God's sweet words with us. But if you are a WHOA crying from the "ends of the earth" today, I pray you will enjoy some sweet time at the higher rock, time with the One who promises not to leave you.

If you are a WHOA and feel alone, I would be glad to add your adversity to my prayer journal.

Peace to you today!