After having my third born, Zealand, I went through mild postpartum depression. I think there were a lot of factors at play in that season from hormone imbalance to life situations. There was a lot weighing on me outside of being a momma to three small boys. [[Marriage is hard]] Needless to say I felt incredibly weak in that season. Often times I didn’t know if I would be able to withstand the pressure of it all. There are days when I look back tears well up in my eyes and I genuinely don’t know how I made it out of that time alive.
Just a few months into that season God brought me to:
Joel 3:10 which says,
“Beat your plows into swords
and your pruning knives into spears.
Let even the weakling say, “I am a warrior.”
(HCSB)
Most people have heard the line “let the weak say I am strong”.
I love the Holman Christian Standard Bible version of this passage because to me it ups the ante taking it from weakling to warrior. There is an aggressive side to it, I picture a Popeye experience, just give me that can of spinach and I can take on anything.
Better yet give me Jesus and I can take on the world.
I often now go back to “I am a warrior.”
The great exchanger has taken my insufficient weakness and paired it with His great strength and He has made me a warrior. I feel like a Navy Seal, a Special Ops Soldier readied for battle. That means I can get up in the morning and face whatever it is I need to face. Sometimes that looks like facing the seemingly small challenges in life, like laundry and feeding my kids. Other times the strength is to face the gut wrenching life events that have nearly taken me out I don’t know how many times.
I want to encourage you to allow God to come in.
Whatever it is you are facing big or small God wants create in you a warrior mindset towards it. Hold on to the Truth spoken in Philippians 4:13 that you CAN do ALL things THROUGH Christ who strengthens you. I wrote in my journal the day God brought me to the verse:
“Lord let that be my declaration today and everyday until I no longer need to declare it because I am living it.”
May this become your reality too. 💗
How would your world change if you saw yourself as a WARRIOR?
I love seeing verses put to use in your everyday life. That’s probably one of the things I struggle with most is searching out Gods word to help with what I’m dealing with.
It takes practice, just like anything. I tend to find my favorite and then just soak it in. Its like when a song you like comes on the radio, you didn’t know it right away but as it was played over and over it became a part of you. You have to make the scriptures the soundtrack of your problems.