There is a fortress inside you that you often neglect.
A power greater than anything you can muster with muscle, fabricate with intellect, or craft with imagination.
You are complex, despite trying to simplify your life.
You often battle responsibilities with exhaustion, wounds with invisible Band-Aids, and temper yourself with inner pep talks and outer smiles.
You’re not disingenuous: you do your best to mean what you say and say what you mean.
Yet, there are days when you’re simply too tired to explain or too tired to even fully understand what needs to be explained. And that, too, is okay.
It’s okay to rest.
It’s okay to stumble.
And it’s okay to admit that despite loving and appreciating your life, some days are hard, and you’re glad when dawn breaks anew.
You’re glad when something is completed so that it no longer is on your plate.
You’re glad when the conversation goes better than you anticipated or resolution comes without the prolonged conflict you expected.
It doesn’t make you weak to recognize that life is hard.
It doesn’t mean you are ungrateful.
It doesn’t even mean you are a nagging complainer.
Rather, acknowledging the tough terrain is part of preparing for it.
This holds true even if the outcome remains uncertain.
Lean into what can sustain more than simply satisfy.
The strength you need does not have to be manufactured: you already have it.
The Holy Spirit is inside of you, Believer.
What does this mean?
You have in the very innermost of your core a guarantee of inheritance that enables you to draw from a personal Helper (Ephesians 1:13–14; 2 Corinthians 1:22; 5:5).
This guide is yours, my friend, to help you in weakness and prayer (Romans 8:26–27).
To empower you for witness and service (Acts 1:8; 1 Corinthians 12).
To offer assurance that we are children of God (Romans 8:16).
To guide you in discerning truth (John 14:26; 16:13).
To convict you of works and thoughts that distance you from God and assist in your sanctification. (John 16:8; 2 Thessalonians 2:13).
To aid in character building through the production of fruit worth tasting and sharing: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control (Galatians 5:22–23).
To comfort you and remain with you as a strong and faithful presence (John 14:16–17).
You receive the armor of God and the “sword of the Spirit” (Ephesians 6:17), so the Spirit is actively involved in your defense… in the very intertwining of your temporal to eternal life.
The Holy Spirit empowers you to use God’s Word above all as your tool of defense and offense in spiritual warfare.
As spiritual warfare is at the core of conflict, knowing that you have at your ready disposal the power you need to defeat doubt, distraction, and discouragement positions you as a victor.
Do you live as someone defeated by your circumstances, or as someone empowered by the Spirit within you?
Take notice of what you give voice to and where you choose to remain silent.
Give yourself the opportunity to improve the quality of your thoughts by putting them to the test against Scripture.
Not every thought deserves your agreement, and not every feeling deserves authority over you.
You will still have hard days. You will still become tired. You will still face conversations that hurt, responsibilities that overwhelm, and circumstances you cannot control.
But you do not face them empty.
There is a fortress inside you.
Guard it. Strengthen it. Listen to the One who dwells within it.
And when the world around you feels like more than you can carry, remember that you were never meant to carry it alone.
This column was originally published by CherryRoad Media. For more faith-based columns and inspirational writing by Tiffany Kaye Chartier, follow her on Facebook. Her devotional collection “The 4-Minute Reset: For Cultivating Peace, Purpose, and Positivity” is available on Amazon and other major online retailers.
Provided by Dallas Express
