What a Week

If You Know the Blueprint for Struggling , Don’t Read On!

This is a special edition House Note for those who forgot, need a reminder, or have absolutely no idea what the blueprint for struggling is. It's a pattern of facing challenges, remembering past victories, and trusting God with what comes next. If this feels too familiar, don’t read on; you’ve been warned.

First came the bear. Then came the lion. Then down went the giant. POV: It’s Day One of 10 Days of Prayer in Bridgeport. And honestly? I’ve had a week. Friendship arguments. Terrifying news at work. Insecurities flaring up. Dreams I wish I could forget. This was the kind of week where if it wasn't one thing, it was another. And I’m not going to pretend I handled every moment of it perfectly.

There were moments when I felt overwhelmed. Moments when my mind went places it had no business going. Moments when I questioned myself, questioned what was happening, and probably gave too much attention to things that didn't deserve that much of my mental real estate.

I even struggled writing this blog. I’ve been putting before God: Is this a good thing or a God thing? Unbeknownst to my coworker, she came talking about herself, but I felt like she was speaking directly to my angst. God does things like communicate to us through others.

Anyhow, she was talking about not wanting to preach from a place of pouring out. I myself realized that I need to shift from pouring out to overflowing. Because pouring means you become empty. Overflow means people get to benefit from what God is pouring into you. And I hate to admit it, but recently I have been so focused on pouring into others that I haven't been making enough room to be poured into. For me, being poured into looks like taking time to rest, carving out quiet moments in prayer, opening my heart to God’s presence in worship, and studying the Word. I was in my Word to give a word and not to get a word.

I've been pouring, okay. Pouring into people, into work, and into ministry. Just pouring into things I care about. And somewhere in the middle of all that pouring, I realized I needed to be poured into, too.

So, in short, I have had a lot on my mind this week. But then worship started. And as the worship team sang, the tears started falling because I forgot. Not God or the Bible, but the blueprint for struggling.

David recounts facing real danger in 1 Samuel 17:34–37 to King Saul as he is preparing to face Goliath. He had faced a lion. He had faced a bear. And God delivered him every single time.

Can I tell you something? A vicious dog probably would have had me. And here David is, going toe to toe with lions and bears. But the lion and the bear had happened. And when David stood in front of Goliath, he had a history to remember. God had already shown David what He could do. David wasn't walking into his first battle. He was walking into another one.

And David is not the only one with a blueprint of struggle and survival. Joseph was thrown into a pit by his own brothers (Genesis 37:23–28), sold into slavery (Genesis 39:1), then falsely imprisoned (Genesis 39:19–20), yet God was with him through every painful chapter and ultimately used his story to position him for leadership in Egypt (Genesis 41:39–41).

Paul, too, knew what it meant to be shipwrecked, beaten, and imprisoned for his faith. He shares just some of these hardships in 2 Corinthians 11:23–27 and Acts 16:22–26. Yet his story shows us someone who kept pressing forward through hardship, trusting God and serving others.

We’re in good company when we face hard things, because Scripture is full of people who saw God’s faithfulness on the other side of their struggles.

And maybe that's what I forgot. The battles before the battle matter. The prayers God already answered matter. The things I survived matter. The moments I thought would break me, but didn't, matter. Because first came the bear. Then came the lion. And then down went the giant.

Now, I'm not saying every difficult thing that happens to us is some divinely assigned training exercise. Sometimes life is just hard. Sometimes bad news comes. Sometimes we make mistakes. Sometimes we find ourselves in a week that feels like too much.

But I do believe God can use all of it. I remember having a week like this last year, and the final straw was a flat tire in my church parking lot. But when the guy from roadside assistance came, he didn’t know he was pulling up to a church and that men would be there to minister to him. God used it, and my last straw became someone's reason to hold on.

God can use the bear. He can use the lion. He can use what we didn't ask for, what we didn't expect, and what we'd definitely preferred to avoid. I.E., most of our childhoods. He can use it to strengthen us. To teach us. To mature us. To remind us who He is.

And this week? This week felt like my version of lions and bears (I'm being dramatic, but you get the point.)

But in worship, I had the aha moment. Every instance this week was just a lion or bear that my Father is delivering/delivered me from, like all the times before. So if I'm facing these things and surviving, no Goliath in sight is going to take me out. I'm being prepared. I'm being perfected. And I'm going to keep pressing. Because the struggling blueprint isn't that I never struggle; clearly, I do. The struggling blueprint is to remember what the Lord has done and not let my current struggle erase my previous evidence. I have to remember the bear. I have to remember the lion. And when the giant shows up, I have to remember who brought me through both.

So yes, if it's not one thing, it's another. But we have the victory. And sometimes the reminder we need isn't a new word. Sometimes we just need to remember what God already showed us.

First came the bear. Then came the lion. Then down went the giant. In the words of Pastor Jasmine from Mercy Culture, “David faced a lion, and then it died; then David faced a bear, and then it died. And in the same way the lion came down and in the same way the bear came down, the giant is coming down,” in Jesus' name.