I see you.

It may not feel or seem like it right now, but I do. I see the moments when you struggle to find sleep and I see your frustrations when you awaken to yet another day.

I see the times when the hope within you finds a bit of momentum, only to crash and burn not long after.

I see your struggle as you come to Me in prayer and fight off your doubts, thinking whether prayer really does anything.

I see your desperation in searching the Scriptures, looking for that turn-around, that catalyst to once again feel hopeful.

I hear you.

Who else but I could hear your deepest thoughts and faintest whispers? I hear the cries of your heart as you endure your overwhelming requirements that are piling up more than they’re getting done.

I hear your many “I can’t do it anymore,” “I give up,” and “I’m done” as the classes finally end, only to find yourself having no choice but to face your modules and assessments a few moments later.

I hear the subtle change in the tone of your voice as you share your hopes and dreams. They now sound more like wishful thinking than actual dreams you’re confident to achieve.

I hear your heartbreak and fear as you express your condolences to another friend or relative.

I feel you.

Believe me when I say I know how you feel.

I feel your struggle to keep it all together.

I feel your loneliness in light of the challenges of maintaining the closest of relationships online.

I feel your anger at the injustice exposed and unaccounted for. I feel your grief of having to say goodbye to a loved one who has gone too soon. I feel your longing for the day all these will pass and the true new normal begins.

Look to Me.

From the moment you were conceived up to now, I have seen you and I will never take my gaze off you until your final breath and into eternity.

I have so much in store for you.

Your character is being molded still, but your identity is already secure in Me. Your destiny is unfolding slowly, but your destination has already been set by Me.

My love for you has never wavered—you are fully known, fully seen, fully heard, fully felt, and most of all, fully loved.

There is a life better than this, and while the pandemic drags on, let Me expose your brokenness so we can deal with it and I can fully heal it. Allow me to continually purify you toward the righteousness I’ve clothed you with.

Listen to Me.

I speak to you every single day. Do you hear it?

It may be through the Scriptures, through the songs you listen to, through the sound of nature outside your window, or through a still small voice in your heart that tells you, “Peace, be still.”

Remember that My word will fulfill the purpose for which I sent it.

The comfort you’ve been looking for, the spark of hope, the consolation to your grief, the motivation that has eluded you, the faith you’ve been asking for—all these have been sent your way already.

Ask and it shall be given. Seek and you shall find. Knock and the door shall be opened. And if you haven’t yet received, keep asking, seeking, and knocking, because your pursuit of Me will eventually lead you to all of these. 

Depend on Me.

I feel your struggles because I, too, endured keeping it together at the Garden of Gethsemane when I asked the Father to take it all away. Yet in the end, I chose to trust Him.

I feel your loneliness because as I prayed in that garden, I asked My disciples—My dearest friends—to join me, but I found Myself alone with the Father.

I feel your anger at the injustices because injustices were done unto Me from trial to the cross, yet I cried out to the Father to forgive all of them, for they didn’t know what they were doing.

I feel your grief because I, too, once grieved for a friend who died.

I feel your longing for a better world. I, too, long for you to be with Me in the new world that I’m preparing where there will be no more pain and tears.

Come to Me.

Hope may be hard to come by right now, and I fully understand.

I ask only that you look to Me, listen to Me, and depend on Me.

For whatever hope you may have that is dead or dying, come to Me for I am a wellspring of life.

Out of My living water is the living hope. It is a hope that never runs dry.

Find rest, o, restless soul.