The Resilience God is Building in Me

by Marcie Dennis

Romans 15:13 – “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may be filled to overflow with HOPE by the power of the Holy Spirit.”

At the start of this year, I was searching for my word for the year and struggling for what to use. For those of you who may not know what I'm referring to, let me elaborate a little. We all know people set goals for the New Year's; this is taking that a step further by finding one word as an overarching theme for the year. It's something I saw come about a few years ago and those who tend to be Type-A personality and go-getter's love this.

I decided to not rush it this year seeing as how I was already a bit “behind the game” starting a couple weeks into January with setting goals and picking a verse and word. This year I gave myself permission to take my time, to spread out the start of my goals, and to wait for God to provide what I was looking for. I spent time journaling one morning everything that came to mind I would want to look different this year. I thought about things I wanted to do or avoid, ways to grow personally and in my business.

As I wrote I prayed that God would guide me to the most important things and show me areas where I really needed growth this year. I also read scripture as it came to mind and had worship music playing in the background to really help set the mood and mindset for the task at hand. I ended up with five areas in which I specifically felt I wanted to and needed to grow

Next, I worked to find verses pertinent to each topic. I also took time to bullet point what each goal meant specifically, I broke it down into something measurable and called out what I would and wouldn’t do to achieve the overarching theme. This would help me focus on the important aspects of each goal and be able to tell when there was growth, or I had grown stagnate. I then created a desktop screensaver with everything listed out all pretty so I could have it as a visual reminder of what I was working towards every time I sat down at my computer.

Finding My Word

With all these goals, action items and verses in place, I needed a word. I had an upcoming vision event I’d attended last year at my church. We would take old magazines, stickers, markers, tape, etc. and make a collage for our word of the year. It becomes our vision board to display somewhere we’ll see it daily to remind and encourage us throughout the year of what we’re working towards or dwelling in. I wanted to have my word before this event because I like to be prepared; even when it isn’t necessary.

Again, one morning I was sitting with God, journaling and listening to music, asking for my word when Resilience ran through my mind. I thought, oh no, anything but that. Resilience means that I have to endure hardships! I’ve just spent the last several years in the middle of one hardship after another without much reprieve in between; please don’t tell me there’s more to come! And that’s when I remembered the verse where Jesus is speaking to his disciples in the Upper Room on the night He was to be betrayed. It is found in John 16:33. “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”

Jesus was giving them his last big pep talk preparing them for the coming grief they would experience. He assured them that the Holy Spirit, his Advocate, would come on them and speak only what God and Jesus shared with him so that they continued to receive his guidance daily. Jesus wanted to comfort them in advance and reassure them everything would be ok even though a time for great grief was coming.

Writing this now I once again feel trepidation about what having the word Resilience for the year means for me, but I have faith that the God of all peace and joy will fill me with Hope as I trust in Him. I’ve been practicing it in fact. After processing it some, I realized that we are Guaranteed hardships in this life, we face them Every Single Day! So why wouldn’t I want my word for the year to be one that means I am able to overcome it? And overcome it I shall because the Jesus who is in me, overcame the world; that my dear is another guarantee!

The word Resilience as it relates to a person is “the ability of a person to adjust to or recover readily from illness, adversity, major life changes, etc.; buoyancy. It also means “the ability of a system or organization to respond to or recover readily from a crisis, disruptive process, etc.

I thought, ok, I can be Resilient. In fact, I Want to be Resilient. Bring it on! With God on my side and the Holy Spirit within me, I can adjust and recover from anything the world will throw my way.

Finding My Verse

The next thing to do was find a verse to go with this word. I first turned to the Master Index in the back of my Bible to see if the world Resilience was anywhere to be found, it was not. Neither was tenacious, but I did find perseverance and persistence. I wasn’t really feeling any of the related verses though, so I had to keep looking. I found the word endurance and Hebrews 10:36 “You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised.” And that seemed good enough, so I figured I’d go with it since I didn’t love anything else.

I hope you can clearly see how that was not a spirit filled choice. God will never give you something mediocre or just good enough. God only gives good, great, amazing things for you. That is another guarantee from His Word (James 1:17). When you wait for that direction from Him and obey, you will receive abundant blessings. Don’t be afraid to follow His guidance once you do receive it. It is the best decision you can make.

Well, I did the visioning event and created a beautiful collage with the word Resilience in big bold letters on a beautiful background with some encouraging stickers on it. Since I knew I didn’t Love my verse, I didn’t include it on my board. I was satisfied with it and took it home to sit near my desk as a daily reminder that God had called me Resilient.

A month or so later, I decided to reach out to my very talented friend Nicole who paints gorgeous watercolors. I commissioned her to make me a large painting with splashes of color in my color palette and put the word Resilience in big pretty letters across it. It was going right above the computers at my desk so I would see it daily. We went back and forth on the design; specific colors being used and whether I would include the Bible verse on it or just have the word. I figured we could go for the reference being on there as a good reminder of the grounding I felt it should be throughout the year.

I told Nicole my verse and a week or so went by when I got a picture of a small sample of what the poster would look like. Instead of the verse I had chosen, she put Romans 15:13. Romans 15:13 says, “May the God hope fill you will all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.”

Can I just tell you that was a God Moment for me? Truly it was.

All year, God has been tenderly whispering to me to hope in Him again. It’s been a struggle to hope for good when I know full well that bad things can and have happened in my life. But God wants me to hope in Him again, hope that things will go right and that He has the best in mind for me; not the worst. Christy Wright, a woman I greatly admire, started a new podcast called Get Your Hopes Up and I had been devouring that.

Do you know what her tagline is, her verse for the show?

Romans 15:13. She says it every episode because God is also teaching her to get her hopes up in Him again. So, I told Nicole, you know, that’s not actually my original verse but I think you ought to leave it there because clearly God thinks it should be my verse this year. And this time, I Loved it!

This year, God is tenderly caring for me, sweetly whispering love, encouragement and hope to me. He’s filling me to overflow with joy and peace as He is loving me in a way that I’m newly open to in this season of life. I am resilient in the face of everyday setbacks and frustrations. I will not give up hope that God is working all things together for the good of those who love him and are called according to His purpose (Romans 8:28). I am resilient to follow through in what He is calling me to do each day and in this overall season He has placed me in.

Closure

Now, why am I sharing this with you? Well, I want to share the testimony of how evidently God is moving in and through me this year, how tenderly He is treating me. I want you to see how beautiful and fulfilling it is when He guides you instead of trying to figure things out all on our own. I want you to see that God does still speak with His children, He still moves in us. God still loves us and cares enough to point us in the right direction.

Sweet sister, if you’re discouraged today, if the pain of the past has led you to resist trusting in God, I want you to start to hope again. I want you to find your inner resilience, your own God-given ability to bounce back, to crawl back, whatever it takes. I want you to have faith once again in a God who loves you infinitely more than you could ever imagine. I want you to overflow with hope because the God who created us cares so deeply for you. I want you to know that He’s tenderly calling you back to Him; if only you’ll listen to His voice and respond in obedience.

Prayer:

Abba, sweet Father. You love me even when I feel unlovable. Thank you for your compassion and your grace when I feel so scared and unworthy. I want to trust you again; I want to trust you are working amidst my pain for a greater good I cannot see yet. I want to be able to hope in you and your goodness again, or maybe for the first time. Please open my ears to hear where you are speaking to me. Please open my eyes to see you moving in even the smallest parts of my life. Please open my heart to your grace and love for me. I want to grow my faith in you.

Amen

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Hey sweet lady, we want to take a quick minute to guide your next steps with the scripture and application portion. We believe that in order to truly grow closer to God, we need to spend time dwelling on what he’s trying to teach us and not rush through it. We encourage you to spend a full week dwelling on this devotional and all it has to offer you. That means you can save some of the scripture passages for another day or re-read them in the week. We also encourage you to take your time with the application portion. You can sit in each prompt until you feel God revealing his truths to you. Don’t rush, take time to truly get to know him better by sitting in what he’s trying to teach you this week. That's where your faith will grow.

Scripture for Further Study:

• Romans 15:1-13

• John 16

• James 1

Application:

1. Meditate on the truths you’ve heard today by journaling or talking to God aloud about it.

2. Ask God to show you where He is moving in such a way that you couldn’t possibly miss it. Then trust that He will do this for you because it’s what He longs for.

3. Journal about what He showed you as an answered prayer.

4. Share this with a friend or mentor you’re walking your faith out with. If you don’t currently have one, then I highly encourage you to find one. Start at church and be open to conversing with people to see who it is you connect with.