Dear One,
I was praying for a friend this morning when this request left my lips:
Be mighty in the middle.
My friend’s husband is in the hospital with kidney disease, heart disease, and now cancer. In addition to supporting him, she’s trying to be present to her full-time job and her two teenage daughters. All in the midst of this pandemic. It’s nuts.
Be mighty in the middle, I prayed.
Be mighty in the middle of my friend, dear God.
Mighty in the middle of her when she’s in the middle of all that’s really just too much if you ask me.
This prayer continued as many of you came to mind.
Be mighty in the middle of my friend …
- Who lives in the inferno that is California.
- Whose anxiety looms large.
- Who’s racked with grief.
- Who’s watching her young son’s life be consumed by cancer.
Be mighty in the middle.
I texted my friend. Told her what I was praying. She said, “that sounds like a Little Life Word.”
Immediately my mind went to Zephaniah 3:17, and Psalm 46:5
“The Lord your God is in your midst, the Mighty Warrior who saves.”
“God is in the midst of her, she will not be moved;
God will help her when the morning dawns.”
God will help her.
The Mighty One – in the middle of her.
In both these Scriptures, the people were in the middle of a mighty mess, but a mighty God was in the middle of them!
Listen to the opening of Psalm 46:
“God is our refuge and strength [mighty and impenetrable],
A very present and well-proved help in trouble.
Therefore we will not fear, though the earth should change
and though the mountains be shaken and slip into the heart of the seas,
Though its waters roar and foam,
Though the mountains tremble at its roaring …”
When everything around us is crumbling & chaotic, shaking & shifting, troubling & terrifying, God is mighty in the middle. Mighty in the middle of us.
The mountains may be moved, but we will not! Come, Lord Jesus!!
Believe me when I say I am asking God to calm the chaos, steady the shaking, take away the trouble. I’d like an END, please, to cancer and crisis. I’d like the mountains put back where they belong, all firm like. I’d like the waters to settle down and all that slipped away to be returned. I pray for these things. I beg for these things. And sometimes they happen.
But in the meantime, know this: God is mighty in the middle of us. Of you, dear heart. You. Mighty in the middle, strong to save, present, powerful, proven.
“You will not be moved.”
Mighty in the Middle: Our Little Life Words of the week.
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DEEPER DIVE
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Ponder:
- What are you in the middle of? Take some time to name/write/be aware of all that’s happening around you.
Practice:
- Even though you may not be able to change someone’s circumstances, how can you, like God, show up in their midst? Choose one person for whom you will give the gift of presence this week.
Play:
- Our song of the week is: Nothing to Fear by Audrey Assad/The Porter’s Gate
Pray:
- As you pray for your people this week, ask God to be mighty in the middle of them, a present & proven help in time of trouble.
Friend I don’t know about you but I need God to help me at break of day … to be mighty in the middle of me as I’m in the middle of a mighty hard time.
He is not just with us. He is in us.
“May He strengthen you with power through HIS Spirit in YOUR inner being (Ephesians 3:16).”