Nothing to give?

Do you ever feel like you have nothing to give those around you?  Your friend is going through a trial.  Your spouse is wrestling with issues at work.  Someone loses their spouse or child.   There are times when I go to the Lord and know that I have not experienced these things others are going through.  I have not had the heartache of losing a spouse or child.  There are trials my friends are going through that I can do nothing about but wait on the Lord.  Even my encouragement seems lame.  The words, 'you are in my prayers' seem empty.  I know they are not, I know that prayer is powerful.  Prayer is powerful to change situations, it is powerful to bring the presence of God into a situation, and it is powerful to bring healing. 

Speaking God's word, calling on the covenant we have been given through Jesus is powerful!  The thing is, we may not see immediate change in the natural.   Sometimes healing is immediate, sometimes there is a process.  Sometimes answers come the next hour. Sometimes, in the natural timeline we create in our heads, we feel the answers will never come.  To others, to our own situation, we can feel that we have nothing to give.

But you do have something to give when you have God residing within you.  You and I have His hope, His peace to share.  You and I have His promises.

Trust in the Lord, and do good; dwell in the land, and feed on His faithfulness.  Delight yourself also in the Lord and He shall give you the desires of your heart.  Commit your way to the Lord, trust also in Him, and He shall bring it to pass.  He shall bring forth your righteousness as the light, and your justice as the noonday.  Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for Him... -Psalm 37:3-7a

Hope, we carry it inside of us. Not hope in ourselves. Not hope in a world gone awry. Hope in the God of all creation.  Hope in His loving-kindness.  And even though we feel that we have nothing to give, when we have relationship with the Living God who dwells within us, we are never without. 

I still feel many times that I have nothing to give.  I feel that I am powerless to change my own situation, much less help anyone else overcome theirs.  But then I can remember that it is God who gives the power to overcome.

You are of God, little children, and have overcome them, because He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. -1 John 4:4

We have peace that resides in us, peace that we can share with those around us, peace that we can call into our own situation because we have the Holy Spirit inside of ourselves.

But the helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you. 27 Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.  -John 14:26-27

When I feel like I have nothing to give, when I've prayed and given all that I know to give, that is when I have to rely on what God tells me in His word.  That's when I have to remember that it's not about what I feel, but about who I am in Christ, about the Christ that lives in me.  That is when I can continue to pray, continue to encourage, continue to just be there for those around me.  I know that it's not about what I can do in my own power and what I can give, but about the God inside of me that I can give.

My prayer today is: Father, bring to my rememberance who You are inside of me.  When I am faced with situations that seem impossible, help me to remember that I can give all I have of you.  It is not of myself, but God who is True and Just that gives me the faith and strength to stand in the gap.  To stand for myself or for those who cannot stand for themselves.  I am never without because I have you.  Thank you for your faithfulness.