#310 - When You Cant Take It Anymore - Part 2 - James 5.16b-18

Unknown Speaker (0:03): This message was recorded live at Arvin Assembly of God. What you are about to hear is a sermon preached during one of our regular church services. We pray that as you listen, the word of God strengthens your faith, deepens your understanding, and draws you closer to Jesus. Let's tune in to today's broadcast.

Unknown Speaker (0:27): Well, good morning to everybody. If you have your Bibles, I want you to turn with me to James chapter five. And today, we're picking up right where we left off last week. And so I wanna bring us back for just a moment because this is part two of one message, and you need to remember part one. If you weren't here last week, you should go and listen to the sermon.

Unknown Speaker (0:56): This is a sermon that I would categorize as vitally important to the life of a Christian. But here for just a moment, we need to review so that we can understand where we're going. Last week, we asked a question, and I wanna ask it again this morning because James isn't done answering this question. The question is this, what do you do when you can't take it anymore? And that's the question that every single one of us is going to have to answer.

Speaker 1 (1:27): Every single one of us is going to reach a place in life when it feels like we can't take it anymore. That's the end of your strength, the end of your patience. It's a place where you feel like you can't take another step. And James gave us three answers last week. Do you remember them?

Speaker 1 (1:49): He told us the first answer was this. He said, take it to the Lord. So when you're suffering, pray. When you're cheerful, sing. Either way, the direction of what comes out of your mouth goes up to the Lord.

Speaker 1 (2:07): And the second answer was this. He said, tell the elders. When you're so far down that you can't even pray for yourself, you don't suffer alone. You call for the people that God has placed over your life, and you let them anoint you and pray for you in faith, and you trust the Lord to raise you up. And then the third answer was this.

Speaker 1 (2:34): It's tend one another. We confess to each other. We pray for each other. Because here's the bottom line. This wholeness that James is talking about, you don't get whole by yourself.

Speaker 1 (2:47): You get whole together. That's the beauty of the body of Christ. That's the beauty of belonging to a church. Not just saying I go to that church, but it's actually belonging within the life of the church in vital relationship with one another. And so last week, we saw three answers, and every single one of them that James gave us has one direction.

Speaker 1 (3:17): They all go up, up to the Lord. And so this morning, we're gonna add two more answers to this question, two more things that you can do when you feel like you can't take it anymore. Now here's the truth that I wanna make sure that we walk through very carefully this morning. Because this prayer that James has been talking about the whole time, this groaning, this longing that goes up instead of spilling out into our relationships, that kind of prayer is not weak. It's not a last resort.

Speaker 1 (3:55): It's not a hail Mary prayer. It's not something that you do when there's nothing else left to do. In fact, James tells us that it is the most powerful thing that you will ever do. And so even if you're at the end of yourself, even if you have no strength left, even if you think you're just an ordinary person and there is nothing special about you, James says that prayer you pray still moves the hand of God. Would you stand for the reading of God's word?

Speaker 1 (4:36): We're gonna begin in James chapter five reading verses 13 through 18. The Bible says, is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray. Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing psalms.

Speaker 1 (4:55): Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer of faith will save the sick and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. Confess your trespasses to one another and pray for one another that you may be healed.

Speaker 1 (5:22): The effective fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much. Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed earnestly that it would not rain. And it did not rain on the land for three years and six months. And he prayed again, and the heavens gave rain and the earth produced its fruit. Let's pray.

Speaker 1 (5:48): Father, in the mighty precious name of Jesus Christ, I ask you that you would open our hearts and that you would open our minds here this morning. God, enable me to say exactly what you want me to say, and may it be received with your intended purpose. Thank you for your anointing. Thank you for your spirit, and thank you for the power of prayer. In Jesus' name, amen.

Speaker 1 (6:17): You may be seated.

Speaker 2 (6:22): I wanna ask this question again. What do you do when you can't take it anymore? We've already got three answers. Here's the fourth one. You have to trust the power.

Speaker 2 (6:39): You have to trust the power, and it's the power of prayer. Look at verse 16 with me. We're gonna pick up on the very last phrase. James says the

Speaker 1 (6:51): effective fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much. Now I wanna slow down for just a moment, and I want you to notice the word at the very end of this verse. He used the word avails. Now that's an old word. We don't use it very often today.

Speaker 1 (7:14): It's not common in our everyday vocabulary and even in our English language. So I wanna tell you what this word means. The original language here is very strong on this. It means to have power. It means to be able.

Speaker 1 (7:32): It means to prevail. It means something that gets the job done. In other words, this kind of prayer isn't just words that float up into the ceiling. This prayer works. This prayer does something.

Speaker 1 (7:52): This prayer moves things. Now I want you to notice the next phrase with me. James says that not only our does our prayer avail, he calls our prayer effective. Now the original behind this carries the picture of something that is actively at work. It's not idle.

Speaker 1 (8:16): It is something behind the scenes that is operating, something with its sleeves rolled up. This is prayer that is alive and working. And so when we put this together, James is telling us that prayer is one of the most powerful things that are is available to a child of God. It prevails. It accomplishes.

Speaker 1 (8:43): It gets things done. Now this isn't a new idea that James has just invented. He is standing on something the Old Testament has already said. Listen to what Proverbs says in Proverbs fifteen twenty nine. It says that the Lord is far from the wicked, but he hears the prayer of the righteous.

Speaker 1 (9:10): Now that's the promise underneath James' entire sentence here that God hears. That when you pray, God hears and God acts. Not that he might hear, not that he sometimes hears, but that he hears the prayer of the righteous. And if God hears it, it avails. It does something.

Speaker 1 (9:38): Now here's where I've gotta pause for a moment, and I've gotta stop you because I know exactly what some of you just did in your hearts. Some of you heard that the prayer of a righteous man, and you just checked out of everything. You said, well, that's not me. You know, that's that's for holy people. That's for prayer warriors.

Speaker 1 (10:02): That's for the people that have it all together. That's for the elders that James is talking about. But it couldn't be about me. My my prayers don't move anything. I don't even know how to pray.

Speaker 1 (10:17): My prayer is not powerful. I can barely get through a prayer without thinking of my grocery list. I wanna take that lie away from you this morning and replace it with the word of God, which is truth. Because here's the question, back to James now, who is the righteous man? Now when the Bible says righteous, we think that it means perfect.

Speaker 1 (10:49): We think that it means a person that never sins, a super Christian, Somebody that's on a different level than us. You might think, well, I can't pray very well, but I know pastor sure can pray. So his prayers might work a little bit better than mine. That's not what the Bible teaches us. I want you to listen to me carefully.

Speaker 1 (11:15): The righteous person in this verse is simply the believer. The person who has been made righteous. Not because they earned it, not because they're better than you, but because they have received forgiveness through the blood of Jesus Christ. A righteous person is simply a person who belongs to God. That means if you're in Christ this morning, you are the righteous person in this very verse.

Speaker 1 (11:52): This is not for the spiritual elite. This verse is for the humblest believer in this room. Prayer is a powerful weapon and it has been placed in your hands. And when God places something in your hands, it is more powerful than anything on this earth. Think about a little boy who had five loaves and just a few fishes in his hands.

Speaker 1 (12:23): It became powerful to feed 5,000. Or think of young David up against a Goliath who all he had in his hand was just a sling with five stones. It became powerful because God made it powerful. God places something in your hands. It is effective.

Speaker 1 (12:49): It avails much. He has given us the power of prayer. It is a powerful weapon. I have to add something here. The power is not in your performance.

Speaker 1 (13:06): The power lies in God and God alone because he hears you. I have to add something here so you don't walk out of here with the wrong idea because there's a way that we hear and process and translate this term powerful prayer that oftentimes tries to turn God into some divine vending machine, thinking we can walk around and decree and declare whatever it is that we want according to our fleshly lust. As if the right amount of force or the right amount of volume or the right amount of eloquence could force the hand of God. That is false. I want you to listen to what the apostle John says in first John chapter five.

Speaker 1 (14:04): He says, now this is the confidence that we have in him. Notice where our confidence is. It's in him. Your confidence should not be in you, not in your words, not in your eloquence. When you pray, it's all about him and nothing about you.

Speaker 1 (14:30): So quit walking around saying, well, I'm not very good at prayer. You're bringing Christ down. He wants to lift you up this morning and lift himself up because he gets all the glory. Now this is the confidence that we have in him. If we ask anything according to his will, he hears us.

Speaker 1 (15:04): There's that phrase again. He hears us. But I want you to notice that there are some guardrails. There are some boundary markers here. It is according to his will.

Speaker 1 (15:20): The power of prayer was never intended to be the power to get whatever it is that you want. It is the confidence that when you bring your request before a good God, that he hears it and he answers it according to what is good. That's not a weaker promise. That's a better promise, a more powerful promise. And so when we hold this together, I want us to go back to James now.

Speaker 1 (15:54): He can say not only does your prayer avail, but he can say it avails much. It avails much because it goes up to the God who hears and God answers according to his will. So do you see what this does to our question? When you reach a place when you feel like you can't take it anymore, when you're at the end of yourself, you might feel like the weakest, least qualified person to even bend the knee before God. But that is exactly the kind of person that James is looking at, and he is pointing at them, and he is saying that is the prayer that avails.

Speaker 1 (16:49): Listen to what the apostle Paul writes in second Corinthians twelve ten. He says, therefore, I take pleasure in affirmities and reproaches and needs, in persecution, in distresses for Christ's sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong. Now I want you to notice something with me. When Paul says weak right there, he is using the exact same word that we talked about last week.

Speaker 1 (17:26): And in Bible study, it is the word for a sick person, the one who has to call the elders. It is the same word in the original language for sick. It means to be weak, to be worn out, to be run down. This is a person at the end of themself. Now this is not a coincidence.

Speaker 1 (17:53): That is the whole point of what we're looking at this morning. That sickness that James has been talking about, this weakness that the apostle Paul's talking about, they are settled in exactly the same place. A place where it feels like you just can't. And Paul says, when I get there, that is when I am strong. Not because of me, but because of Christ.

Speaker 1 (18:27): Now church, I want you to notice three words in the middle of this verse here. He says, for Christ's sake. Paul is not saying that I take pleasures in weakness because weakness is fun. He takes pleasure in it because of why he's weak. He is weak because he belongs to Jesus.

Speaker 1 (18:52): He's weak because he has been beaten for the gospel. He's weak because he's been hungry for the gospel and hated for the gospel. And the entire reason is because he belongs to Christ. Now hold that thought for a moment. I want you to think now about the people that James has been writing to this entire letter.

Speaker 1 (19:20): They are the scattered. They are the displaced. They are the ones that are working land that is not theirs. They are the ones that are being cheated out of their pay. How did they get there in the first place?

Speaker 1 (19:38): Why were they scattered? Why are they suffering? For Christ's sake. It is the same reason as the apostle Paul. They didn't get pushed out of their homes because they were unlucky.

Speaker 1 (19:57): They got pushed out because they were following Jesus. They were dispersed. They are the very ones that James called to the 12 tribes who are scattered abroad. They're worn out. They are pressed down.

Speaker 1 (20:16): They are weak for the cause of Christ. And James, in this moment, he looks at them, and he says, your prayer avails much. Not the king's prayer, not the high priest in Jerusalem's prayer, your prayer, the prayer of the weak ones who are weak because they belong to Jesus. So are you starting to see what this does now to this question of when you can't take it anymore, when you're at the end of yourself, when you're at the weakest, when you feel the least qualified person to even come before God? If that weakness has come and if you belong to Jesus Christ, that is exactly the person that James says has prayer that prevails.

Speaker 2 (21:16): It avails much. But maybe even that feels like too much for you this

Speaker 1 (21:23): morning. Maybe there are times when you can't even get the words out of your mouth. Maybe there are times when you feel so worn out that when you go to pray, nothing even comes out. Maybe it's just a a groan or a scythe that you don't have language for. I want you to listen to what Paul says about that in Romans chapter eight.

Speaker 1 (21:50): He says in verse 26, likewise, the spirit who helps in our weaknesses. For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the spirit himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. Now I want you to notice where Paul starts here. He says the spirit helps in our weakness. There's that word again.

Speaker 1 (22:22): And, yes, it is the same word, weakness, sickness. It's the same place that we've been standing on these last couple of weeks. It's the place where you just say, I can't. And watch what he says about that place of weakness. When we don't even know how we ought to pray, sometimes you're so far down that you don't even have words, You don't even know what to ask for.

Speaker 1 (22:57): All you can do is groan. And Paul says, that's not the end of your prayer. That's the exact place where the Holy Spirit can now take over. And when all you've got is a groan, the spirit himself picks it up and carries it to the father. Groaning's too deep for words.

Speaker 1 (23:27): The prayer that you couldn't finish, he finishes it for you. And notice how he carries that groan. Look at verse 27 with me. It says, now he who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the spirit is because he makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God. We just heard that phrase a minute ago.

Speaker 1 (23:59): John told us that if we ask according to his will, he hears us. And so here's the comfort for us. When you don't even know what God's will is because there are times in your life when you're gonna say, I don't know. God, what is your will? And when you can't pray because you can't discern it, when you can't pray because you can't see it, the spirit will pray for you.

Speaker 1 (24:29): He makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God. He prays everything you would pray if you could see everything he could see. Verse 28, and we know that all things work together for those who love God, to those who are called according to his purpose. This is not a separate thought here. This is not just a cute verse that we attach onto whatever it is we don't understand.

Speaker 1 (25:18): This is the result of everything we've been talking about. When the Holy Spirit prays your groan according to the will of God, God goes to work on all of it. The waiting, the weakness, the sickness, the depression, the thing that you can't carry. He works it together for his good. Not because you prayed it perfectly, not because you're a super saint, not because you are eloquent, but because the spirit prayed it for you.

Speaker 1 (26:01): So don't ever think that your prayer is too weak to matter. Someone could be out working in the fields and go to pray on their lunch break. That prayer avails much. A mother that is up at two in the morning because she doesn't know how to help her child. That prayer avails much.

Speaker 1 (26:32): A man who's lost his job and doesn't even have words anymore, who can only groan, that prayer goes up and the Bible says that it avails much. So here's the fourth answer to our

Speaker 2 (26:52): question. When you can't take it anymore,

Speaker 1 (26:57): don't underestimate what God has placed in your hands. Trust the power of prayer. Prayer that you think is too weak, very well may be the prayer that moves the hand of God. Now here's the thing about a promise like that. It's really easy to say, but it is much, much harder to believe and to get down into your spirit.

Speaker 1 (27:34): And I'm not surprised because James knows that. And so he doesn't leave this this principle, this application just hanging out there in the air. In fact, he gives us an example.

Speaker 2 (27:52): Here's the fifth thing. When we feel like we can't take

Speaker 1 (27:56): it anymore, that's when we have to take hold. We said take it to the Lord. We said tell the elders. We said, tend one another. And now we just said, you can trust the power because the the the prayer of even the humblest believer avails much.

Speaker 1 (28:14): But maybe you're still not sure. And maybe that promise and everything that I've been saying to you today just feels too good to be true. So James does what James loves to do. He he stops for a moment and he points to a person. Look at verse 17 with me.

Speaker 1 (28:38): He says, Elijah was a man with a nature like ours. Elijah. Now if you wanted to pick a prayer hero from the Old Testament, Elijah is the one that you would pick. I mean, think about it. This is the man that called fire down from heaven on Mount Carmel.

Speaker 1 (29:02): This is the man that raised a dead widow's son. This is the man who didn't die. He was taken into heaven in a chariot of fire. You know, it's interesting to me because the Jews loved Elijah. They absolutely loved him, and they would tell stories about Elijah.

Speaker 1 (29:27): In fact, they believe that Elijah is supposed to come back to prepare the way for the Messiah. And so if anybody had a direct line to God, surely it would be Elijah. And so this is exactly the man that James reaches for. But I want you to watch what he says about him because he doesn't say that Elijah was a spiritual giant. He doesn't say that Elijah is on a a different level.

Speaker 1 (30:02): He said that Elijah was a man with a nature like ours. Now this is important because in the original, this is only one word. We'll go over it in Bible study. It literally means the same as us. The same nature, the same weakness, the same struggles.

Speaker 1 (30:26): He's made of the same stuff. And this isn't the only place that the Bible says it. Do you remember when the people of Lystra tried to worship Paul and Barnabas like gods? Listen to how Paul tried to shut it down in acts 14. He says, we are also men with the same nature as you.

Speaker 1 (30:51): There's that word. It's the same idea. This is the greatest apostle saying, look, guys, don't put me on a pedestal. I'm made of the same stuff you are. And this is the point.

Speaker 1 (31:07): This is why James is pointing to Elijah. The greatest what people would consider prayer warrior in their history, James says, he was just like you. And isn't that true of Elijah? Look where we find him just one chapter after the fire fell on Mount Carmel. Look at first Kings with me.

Speaker 1 (31:33): The Bible says, and he prayed that he might die and said, it is enough.

Speaker 2 (31:40): Now, Lord, take my life. We've

Speaker 1 (31:44): gotta stop for a second because this is the same man who was on the mountaintop one day, and now he's sitting under a tree begging for God to let him die the very next day. He's afraid. He's worn out. He's at the end of himself. He is a man that couldn't take it anymore.

Speaker 1 (32:12): Does that sound familiar to some of you? Because that's the very person that James has been talking to this whole sermon. Now I want you to see why this matters. Because James told you that the prayer of a righteous man avails much. And some of you instantly said, I'm not righteous like that.

Unknown Speaker (32:38): And so now James says, let

Unknown Speaker (32:40): me show you one of

Speaker 1 (32:42): the most righteous men that you can think of. And then he goes on to tell you that he's made of the same stuff that you are. He had your weaknesses. He had your fears. He even had your moments of wanting to give up.

Speaker 1 (33:03): You don't have the wrong nature for powerful prayer. You have the same nature that Elijah had. Now back to James. I want you to watch what this ordinary man did. Notice this next phrase.

Speaker 1 (33:23): It said he prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the land for three years and six months. It's an interesting phrase for those of you that are in the eschatology class. The bible says three and a half years or one thousand two hundred and sixty days in other places. It's really interesting to me why they this span of time would be there. I wonder.

Unknown Speaker (33:55): It says he prayed earnestly. I want you to notice the next two words with me.

Unknown Speaker (34:02): He prayed earnestly.

Speaker 1 (34:06): Now I gotta unpack this because this is important. I as I was studying this out, I said, Marcia, you gotta hear this. I just discovered this, and I'm like, this is incredible. I I just gotta share it with you. This this is so beautiful.

Speaker 1 (34:23): This is actually a doubling of the word in the original. In other words, it it is two words, but they're the same word. And they mean exactly the same thing for emphasis to stress the importance. It's what we would call a figure of speech. Now if you were to translate this prayed earnestly, literally word for word, it would read, he prayed with prayer.

Speaker 1 (34:50): Now why would they do this? They did this to add weight, to add intensity. It's a it's a way of speaking. He prayed with prayer. Let me say it the way I think that it would be translated today.

Speaker 1 (35:05): I would say, he pray prayed. He pray prayed. You know, I've talked with people who are going through something, and I'll ask, have you prayed about it? And usually they'll say, well, yeah, you know, I I've I've prayed and and then I'll follow-up and I'll say, no, no, you don't understand me. I mean, have you pray prayed?

Speaker 1 (35:24): Like, have you really prayed about it? That is what James is saying about Elijah here. That he didn't just toss-up a quick little word and he didn't just say a little prayer like he would over the food. You know, he's saying he laid a hold of God and he would not let go. I wanna show you that this isn't just a figure of speech.

Speaker 1 (35:51): He pray prayed. When the rain was about to come, here's what Elijah was doing in first Kings 18. It says that he bowed on the ground and put his face between his knees. Look at his posture, his face to the ground, his head between his knees. This isn't someone that's that's resting.

Speaker 1 (36:21): This is a picture of a man that is laboring. A man that is taking a hold of God with everything in him. That's the picture. Elijah took hold. He grabbed heaven, and he held on.

Speaker 1 (36:41): And the Bible tells us that the sky obeyed three and a half years. No rain. And then one day because one ordinary man with a nature like yours,

Speaker 2 (36:56): pray prayed. Now back to James, look at verse 18.

Speaker 1 (37:01): It says, and he prayed again. You know, there's some times when you're gonna have to lay your case before God multiple times. Sort of like the the widow who would pester the unjust judge. The Bible calls that importunate prayer. You ask and you ask again.

Speaker 1 (37:26): And so the Bible says that he prayed again. Now watch this with me. And the heaven gave rain and the earth produced its fruit. Some light bulbs are about to

Speaker 2 (37:43): go off in your minds here in just a moment. Doesn't this sound familiar? Just a few weeks ago,

Speaker 1 (37:51): do you remember the farmer in James chapter five verse seven? He told us, therefore, be patient, brethren, until the coming of the Lord. See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, waiting patiently for it until it receives the early and latter rain. The farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, waiting for the early and the latter rain. So I want you to notice what James is doing here.

Speaker 1 (38:29): He opens up the chapter with a farmer that is waiting on the rain to get his fruit. And then he closes it with a man whose prayer brought the rain that produced the fruit. It is the same picture. It is the rain. It is the fruit.

Speaker 1 (38:53): And it is the waiting. And so here is what James is telling the people who have been waiting and waiting and feel like they can't take it anymore. He says that rain that you've been waiting on, it comes down when the people of God take hold and pray. You see, Elijah didn't make it rain, but Elijah's prayer was the instrument that God used to send it. And that's what it means to take hold.

Speaker 1 (39:30): You grab the promise. You grab God himself, and you don't let go. I gotta be careful here. Just like I was very careful last week and careful in bible study because somebody's gonna hear this, and they're gonna think. So if I just pray hard enough, I can get whatever I ask for?

Speaker 1 (39:54): I mean, I can just shut the sky too? That's not what James is talking about. Because Elijah wasn't praying his own desires. Elijah was praying God's will because God had already declared judgment on Israel's idolatry. Elijah simply took hold of what God already promised in his word, and he agreed with God about his word, and he prayed it until he saw an answer.

Speaker 1 (40:31): That is the kind of prayer that takes hold. It's not a prayer that tries to twist and manipulate God. It's a prayer that grabs a hold of his word and won't let go until heaven answers. And that's exactly what John told us a moment ago, that if we ask according to his will, he hears us. You know, there's a man all the way back in Genesis who shows us what this looks like.

Unknown Speaker (41:05): Maybe you've already thought about him.

Speaker 2 (41:08): Jacob. He was alone. He was afraid. His brother was coming the next morning with 400 men,

Speaker 1 (41:19): and Jacob thought he was gonna die. Jacob was at a place where he couldn't take it anymore. And that very night, a man came and wrestled with him until daybreak. And Jacob figured out who he was wrestling, and so he held on. He wouldn't let go.

Speaker 1 (41:39): Look at it with me in Genesis 32. Jacob says, I will not let you go unless you bless me. This is a man at the end of himself taking hold of God and refusing to let go. And look what God said to him in the in the very next verse, verse 28. He says, you have struggled with God and have prevailed.

Speaker 1 (42:08): There's that word again, church. Prevailed. The same thing that James said about the prayer of a righteous man. It avails. It prevails.

Speaker 1 (42:22): Jacob took hold of God in the darkest night of his life and he prevailed. He walked away with a new name and a blessing.

Speaker 2 (42:38): There are times when we've got to come to God, and we cannot let go until He blesses us.

Speaker 1 (42:48): So what do you do when you can't take it anymore? You take hold. This morning, the Lord wants you to know you're not too ordinary. You're not too weak. You have the same nature as the man who shut the sky for three and a half years and opened it up again.

Speaker 1 (43:11): And so grab the promise, grab God himself, and don't let go. Would you stand to your feet with me? Do you realize what James has done with us? For those of

Speaker 2 (43:27): you that are faithful to church week after week, I'm not being presumptuous here.

Speaker 1 (43:33): I'm just telling how good God is. He has been blessing you consistently week after week. He's been building something on the inside of you that you can only get by being faithful to God and being faithful to his house. He has started this entire letter talking about faith that gets tested, Faith that's under pressure. Faith in the fire.

Speaker 1 (44:03): And now James is ending it right here on his

Unknown Speaker (44:08): knees in prayer

Speaker 1 (44:11): because this is the reality. This is where the testing has always meant to drive you, not away from God, but to God. The pressure was never intended to break you. It was intended to bring you to the feet of the one who can truly make you whole. And so whatever you walked in this morning carrying, maybe the waiting's gone on too long.

Speaker 1 (44:42): Maybe your body is just worn out. Maybe your mind just isn't at rest. Maybe the prayer that you've prayed a 100 times still hasn't been answered. Don't take it out on the people closest to you. Don't try to carry it alone by yourself for one more day.

Speaker 1 (45:04): We take it to the Lord. Would you pray?