Did you know that January 24th is known as the most depressing day of the year? I did. However, I was too depressed on that day to write about it…okay…not really…and not really funny. However, it got me to thinking how January and February and perhaps into March and April (for those of you who live in colder climates) may find us feeling a continuing sense of sadness, anxiety, irritability, or even experiencing a deep depression.

Personally I could sense one of these “bouts” circling around in my mind finding a place to land this past week. It was due to everything being brown and dead from our most recent “Arctic Blast”. That is why I headed out into the still cold temperatures this weekend with garden shears in hand, a trowel, and a fresh bag of soil. I had to put some “life” into that which was beginning to make me feel “lifeless” inside. And it worked. However, many times crawling out of the pit we sometimes find ourselves in (whether it be seasonal/family related/relationship related or “I’m not sure why I feel this way”), something so simple may not provide the relief we need.

This is why I feel compelled to share with you a devotion I read this morning  from God’s Purpose for Every Woman edited by Lysa TerKeurst and Rachel Olsen. It wasn’t so much the devotion itself, “Meter Reader” (devotion No. 53) by Wendy Pope but the Application Steps Wendy suggested at the end of the devotion. A moment in time when God spoke and I hesitated listening.

You see, when I read the Application Steps:

Using a Bible concordance, look up the word “power.” Read several of the verses in context. Learn what it looks like to experience the presence and power of Christ in your daily life.

I said to myself ~ gee I hate to get up and get the concordance. After all, I am all cozied up in my blanket, the dogs are sleeping on my lap and I hate to disturb them..etc…but my coffee was getting cold (God nudging me)….I needed to refill it with the rest of the pot (God pushing me)…the dogs jumped down without me moving one inch (God is now pushing the dogs)…and so it went until I walked into my bedroom and got out my concordance and went back to the couch to look up “power”. (BUT not before refreshing my cup of coffee and warming it up in the microwave.)

Here is what I found:

He gives power to those who are tired and worn out; he offers strength to the weak. Even youths will become exhausted, and young men will give up. But those who wait on the Lord will find new strength. They will fly high on wings like eagles. The will run and not grow weary. They will walk and not faint. (Isaiah 40 29-31)

If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within. (John 7:37-38)

For the kingdom of God is not a matter of talk but of power. (1 Corinthians 4:20)

Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God’s people and members of God’s household, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit. (Ephesians 2:19-22)

For God did not give us a spirit of fear, but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline. (2 Timothy:7)

“I am going to send you what my Father has promised; but stay in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high.” (Luke 24:49)

“But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. “(Acts 1:8)

But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. (2 Corinthians 12:9)

To quote from Wendy’s devotion:

“As believers, we put ourselves through needless worry and anxiety when we don’t use what God has given us, His power. Imagine how effortlessly we could sail through our troubles if only we would use what has been given freely to us.” Wendy Pope

Amen.

And I sure am thankful and joyful that God slapped me upside the head this morning and got my lazy butt off the couch and into the bedroom to fetch that concordance!!!