Bearing Fruit in the Desert

The Lord gave me some Scripture last night that I wanted to share not only because I need it myself, but also because I know, from talking with other single moms, that there is something we commonly struggle with. We are called by God to help each other get through difficult times and to be there, to extend our hand, to those who are suffering. When you are a single mom and it is all you can do to make it through each day, this calling is especially diffult as we constantly battle that feeling of "I can't help anybody else because I need help!"
In the past, I argued with God about this quite a bit. When I first started meeting other women who needed encouragement, who needed to know how to make it through their divorce to "the other side", I knew that God was calling me to minister, but I wanted to argue with Him that there was no way I could do this. One time I was praying about it and just told God that I was sorry but He just couldn't use me right now because I was all used up and had nothing to give to anybody. I also told Him that I couldn't help anybody until He answered all my questions and made things "right". I was like "How can I tell others that you are faithful, God, when FP is still getting away with threatening me and making my life miserable? How can I tell people you are good when I don't FEEL like you are good and I'm not sure you'll answer my prayers and take care of me? How can I tell others that things will "all work for good" when I don't "see" that goodness yet in my own life???"
It was soon after this that God took me straight to Jeremiah 17:7 where His Word says "But blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD, whose confidence is in him. He will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream. It does not fear when heat comes; its leaves are always green. It has no worries in a year of drought and never fails to bear fruit." and also to Isaiah 58:10 "... if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry and satisfy the needs of the oppressed, then your light will rise in the darkness, and your night will become like the noonday. The LORD will guide you always; he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land and will strengthen your frame. You will be like a well-watered garden, like a spring whose waters never fail."
To me, it was like God was saying "YOU think you are dried up and useless and in the middle of a "sun-scorched land" and YOU have not yet learned to trust Me fully and see what I am doing in your life right now, but I will and CAN still use you in this desert because, like 2 Cor 12:9 says "The Lord 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."
God also reminded me that Hebrews 11:1 tells me that I CANNOT go by what I "see", as "faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see." And, in 2 Cor 5:7 I am told that "We live by faith, not by sight".
I cannot operate and lead my life based on what I SEE, but only based on the promises of God in His Word, promises that He will keep with me, His child of the new covenant.
In order to help others, we don't have to have everything in line or figured out. In fact, I think that when we are just REAL with people and just tell them our struggles, our weaknesses, and how God is bringing us through them that very moment, even when we are still having trouble trusting Him and seeing His plan, that this is more helpful to anyone than all the "good advice" in the world. If you remember that parable about the 2 houses in the storm (Matthew 7)- one on the rock that stands through the storm and the other on the sand that falls apart in the storm - all you have to do is stand in the storm - on top of that rock - and when other people who are struggling can just see that you are still standing, they just want to know HOW you are still standing because all they want to do is lie down and quit, like I want to sometimes, like you want to sometimes. But you just tell them how you keep going (your prayers you pray, the books that have helped you, advice that friends have given you that helped, any tips that helped you out) and it gives them a lifeline to grab onto. You don't have to "have it all together" or see the big "plan" to help someone - Sometimes what helped me the most at the beginning was just hearing that other women had dealt with the same "horrible" thoughts that I thought only I had was having and the same circumstances I thought only I was facing, and yet they were still standing, able to finally have joy again after allowing themselves time to heal.
There were women who told me about contemplating suicide, thought about killing their ex-spouse, wanted to just give up, felt mad at God, thought everybody in town was talking about them when they walked out of a room, didn't want to leave their house for days, couldn't sleep in their own bed alone for months because being in the bed was too painful, struggled with their faith and questioned God, thought they were being "punished" by God for something, had an ex telling them everything was their fault and that they weren't really a Christian if they didn't just 'forgive and forget', etc., etc. - all those things that Satan wantsGod's children to think guiltily that they are alone in and that no one else feels. When you hear other women being REAL about these things and just willing to put themselves out there, just knowing you are not alone helps more than anything. And knowing that there is someone else besides you who doesn't "have it all together" helps - The only thing you have to do to help others who are hurting is to point them to God - just encouraging them to hang in there, to keep praying, keep reading, to trust Him - He is the only one who can help those who are hurting and the only one who will pull them through this. Sometimes we ALL need to be reminded of this and, when we become "disoriented" with all the mess flying around our heads day to day, we need our sisters in Christ to just keep pointing us in that direction, toward Him. If the only thing you do is to point that other person who is hurting toward the Lord, then you can not go wrong! As Luke 8:16 says, "No one lights a lamp and hides it in a jar or puts it under a bed. Instead, he puts it on a stand, so that those who come in can see the light." Start to recognize those lights in the darkness that God gives to you - the encouraging E-mail from a friend, the verse that lifted your heart today, the insight you finally understood - and then share these "lights" with others who need them.
In 2 Corinthians 4 - I love this chapter because I think it really shows us how to minister to others through just pointing them to Christ and His light in the dark. I also love that it says straight out that we are "jars of clay" - breakable, not perfect, not immortal, that we ARE weak - and yet this is actually WHY God chooses us!! - He uses us most in our weakness so that we can't take any of the glory, but all the glory goes to Him. I heard a speaker one time who did this great visual with a broken jar where she turned all the lights off and puts a candle in this closed up jar and then in a cracked jar and she says - which one gives off more light? Of course it's the cracked one because you can see the light through the cracks. She uses this to illustrate how all those weaknesses, all of those "imperfections" that we obsess about and think can never be used by God, are exactly what He is MOST able to use, because "His power is made perfect in weakness" (2 Cor 12:9).
2 Cor 4:
"Therefore, since through God's mercy we have this ministry, we do not lose heart. Rather, we have renounced secret and shameful ways; we do not use deception, nor do we distort the word of God. On the contrary, by setting forth the truth plainly we commend ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God. And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. For we do not preach ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus' sake. For God, who said, "Let light shine out of darkness,"made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ. But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed , but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. For we who are alive are always being given over to death for Jesus' sake, so that his life may be revealed in our mortal body. So then, death is at work in us, but life is at work in you. It is written: "I believed; therefore I have spoken."With that same spirit of faith we also believe and therefore speak, because we know that the one who raised the Lord Jesus from the dead will also raise us with Jesus and present us with you in his presence. All this is for your benefit, so that the grace that is reaching more and more people may cause thanksgiving to overflow to the glory of God. Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outw eighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal."