You’ve Got This, Mama, Because God Has You

Tonight we will talk about how we can do the things we need to do as mamas because God has us. 

Transcript

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You've got this, Mama, because God has you. We're going to talk about that tonight on Midlight Mamas. I have noticed a theme brewing over the last several episodes because we have been able to talk about multiple places where God is taking care of us. For instance, in the last three episodes, we've talked about what to do when we feel like giving up. We've talked about where our ultimate trust is, and we've talked about how God doesn't waste anything, Mama. So tonight I want to carry on with this idea, but also kind of put it together. And I want to take you now over to Isaiah chapter 41 and verse 10, where the word says, Fear not, for I am with you. Be not dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand. And in this particular chapter, God is speaking through the prophet Isaiah to his people. They were facing real threats, like powerful nations and uncertainty about the future, and the fear that they were too weak to even survive. And into that fear, God does not say, try harder or be stronger. He says, I am with you, I am your God, and I will. And I find it interesting as we break this down, just piece by piece, because the word fear not is a command, and it's grounded in a fact and not a feeling. And the reason that we do not have to be controlled by our fears is not because our fears are easy, but it's because God Himself is present and his nearness is the antidote to our fear. Where it says, Be not dismayed, for I am your God. Dismayed carries that sense of looking around and anxious confusion, feeling overwhelmed and small. And God answers that feeling with covenant language when he says, I am your God. He is not a distant deity, he has bound himself to his people. And for us, that is true because God has claimed us as his own. Where he says, I will strengthen you. God does not merely observe us in our weakness, he supplies us with his strength. And this is not the strength of our self-effort, it's strength given by God for the moment when it is needed, whether that moment is a long night of cluster feeding, a wave of anxiety, or the quiet exhaustion of just early motherhood, or even late motherhood. When he says, I will help you, he means God will actively intervene on our behalf. He does not leave us to figure everything out alone. His help may come through a sudden sense of peace or through a friend's text message or through the ability to take the next small step and just keep moving on with our day with a good attitude and a good heart. When he says, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand, what that symbolizes in Scripture that right hand is power, authority, decisive action. Uphold means to keep from falling, to support and to hold steady. The picture is of God placing a strong hand under our weariness so that we do not collapse under the weight of what we're carrying. And it's His righteous right hand, His support that is holy and faithful and perfectly reliable. When we feel we are walking through anxiety or depression or intrusive thoughts or just the exhaustion of it all, our feelings may scream the opposite of this verse at us, that we are alone and weak and we feel like we're failing. But Isaiah 4110, it does not deny those feelings. It speaks a stronger truth over them. You are not alone, he says, I am with you. You are not abandoned, he says, I am your God. You are not left to your own strength, he says, I will strengthen you and help you, and I will uphold you. You see, Mamas, you've got this. It's only true because God truly has you. Mama, this is a place in Scripture where we can really allow the rubber to meet the road, and we can say, I am not alone, because God is with me, and He is the one that is holding me up as a mama. And I want to take you back to this one part of Isaiah 41.10 where we can actually look it up in Hebrew. The word tamach means to grasp, hold firmly, support, uphold, or sustain. And that is in that verse where he says, I will uphold you in Isaiah 41.10. And it's not a light or a distant kind of help. The basic picture is of someone taking a firm grip so that the other person does not fall or slip away. And that is what God does for us. He is the one who upholds us with his strong grip. I am so thankful for that. I am so thankful that when I don't feel like I can do this thing, that God is the one who upholds me. Because as a mama, sometimes I feel like I just always have to have it all the way together. And sometimes I just do, and sometimes I just don't. But I love to know that in those moments when I need carried and I need lifted up, it's the Lord's arm that does it. And that's the beautiful truth of God in our lives. He's not merely near to us, he is actively holding us up. And I think the reason I felt I wanted to share this with you tonight was because the world would tell you, girl, you've got this. But the truth is, you do, you've got this, mama, because you have help that comes from God with your babies, with your families, with the season of life you're in, with the hard things that are happening, with the great things that are happening, with your emotions and your hormones, mama. So just know that you are held by a God who is very, very strong and who loves you so much, and He holds all things together in His hands. One other verse I want to share with you tonight is Psalm 63 and verse 8, and it says, My soul clings to you, your right hand upholds me. This particular psalm was written by David in the wilderness of Judah, and he was in a dry and weary place physically and likely emotionally. Yet his heart was reaching hard after God. The whole psalm is full of longing, thirsting for God, remembering him on his bed, singing in the shadow of his wings. Verse 8 sits right in the middle of the deep dependence where he says, My soul clings to you. And here the Hebrew word is debak, to cling, stick, cleave, or hold fast. It is the same word used in Genesis 224 for a husband cleaving to his wife, and it describes a deliberate and tight attachment, and David is saying, I am holding on to you with everything in me. And then he says, Your right hand upholds me. And here is the Hebrew word temak, which means to hold fast. It means to firmly grasp and to hold hold up. And in this particular part of scripture, David is clinging to God, and God's right hand is firmly holding him, and the two actions happen together. David's clinging does not create the security. God's strong grip does. And David holds on because he is already being held. Maybe we can take a play out of David's book tonight. Ah mamas. Now I would like to leave you with a blessing, mamas. From number six, twenty four through twenty-six. May the Lord bless you and keep you, make his face to shine upon you, be gracious unto you and give you peace. Amen. Until next time, mamas, remember you've got this because God has you. Until next time, mamas, take care, and we'll talk again soon.