 Hey, what's going on? Welcome back to Conversations With Carrie. I know. I know it's been too long. I know. But honey, let me tell you, when Lord gives you something, He will make sure that if He wants you to share it, He will make sure that you share it. And that's what I'm here for. So how you been? How your mama doing? How your daddy doing? How your cousin and them? I wanted to come on today to talk specifically about when admitting your weaknesses is actually your strength. And I wrote about this recently on my blog, so head over to Carrielead.com to take a read. But I also just want to talk with you, and it's based on the story in Exodus 17. Before I jump directly into the scripture, I want to give you a little background of what's been going on in my life. You know, I feel like last year while it was very difficult, I didn't really face any sincere moments of isolation. And I actually faced that recently, I would say, within the past two weeks. And I was just kind of feeling like I was feeling lonely. And when you're a strong woman to admit that you feel lonely is a different level of vulnerability for me. And even when I'm just admitting it to the Lord or like to a family member or to someone like, you know, that's really close and in my inner circle from a friendship standpoint, it doesn't make me feel good. And it made me feel weak, to be honest. And, you know, I turned to my word. I knew what to do. However, I needed more than that, if that makes sense. So let me first tell you, so I turned to my word. So I was like, Lord, I know, you know, you want me to be vulnerable. You want me to be open with you and share my heart with you. Like, don't share with it. It ain't everybody's business to know how you're feeling, all that kind of stuff. Because also you want to make sure you're not making decisions based on your feelings. But when I turned to my word and I was just like, Lord, I'm feeling kind of weak. I don't like feeling this way. I felt like I know better. I know what to do. And I know that these are feelings and feelings are fickle. And I felt like when I turned to my word, I was like, oh, I should feel better after that. And he actually took me first to 2 Corinthians, the 12th chapter, verse 9. It says, And this is Paul talking about, you know, he had asked the Lord three times to take away something that, you know, the thorn in his flesh. We don't know the details around exactly what it was. And I love that they don't tell us what it was because, you know, each of us can relate to it in our own different way. But ultimately in verse 9, when he's talking about my grace is sufficient for you, for my power is perfected in weakness. I'm like, yes, the Lord wants me to take my weakness, take what I perceive as my weakness. He wants me to take that to him because ultimately the Holy Spirit is my strength. And so I was like, okay, I agree with that Lord. But that didn't immediately make me feel better. And the Lord brought to my mind, call sus and such. And now listen, I'm not one to be special when I'm feeling lonely. Like, you know, the enemy will trick you, make you like isolate yourself even more. But I was like, you know, when somebody says, Carrie, you can call me at any time. I rarely take them up on that offer, but I knew I needed some support. This word is feeding me. And I know the Lord has strategically placed people in my life to be a support that can reiterate what the Bible says. So I called a confidant and a counselor who has been helping me walk through some things. And when I say that, you know, she just prayed over me and she confirmed even like, yeah, like what you're feeling that that that can happen. And I really appreciated that. And then the Lord took me to Exodus 17. And in Exodus 17, he took me to the story of when Moses was helping Israelites fight the Amalekites. I think I said that right. Y'all know I'll be jacking up the words, but I'm pretty sure I pronounced that one correctly. And this is a story where we find that Moses was instructed to... He told Joshua, hey, choose some men to go out and fight. And then while you fight, Moses' responsibility was to stand up with this with the staff in his hand and hold his arm up while they fought. We find it in Exodus 17, verse 11. So it came about when Moses held up his hand that Israel prevailed. And when he let his hand down, Amalek prevailed. But Moses' hands were heavy. This is verse 12. Then they took a stone and put it under him and he sat on it. And Aaron and her supported his hands one on one side and one on the other. Thus his hands were steady until sunset. So again, I'm going to read verse 12 again because that's that's where it's at. But Moses' hands were heavy. Then they took a stone and put it under him and he sat on it. And Aaron and her supported his hands one on one side and one on the other. Thus his hands were steady until the sunset. And Joshua and the Israelites won the battle. So picture this. Picture this. Lord tells Moses, I want you to take the staff in your hand. You're going to hold it up. As long as you hold it up, the Israelites will win. But as the arm starts to fall, then the Israelites are starting to be beat. So the enemy is winning. And you know, I don't know about you. I work out. I try to stay pretty fit, but I can't hold my hand up like this literally for hours while people are fighting up on the hill. And he had Aaron and her with him. And again, I may not be pronouncing the name correctly, so y'all got to bear with me. But he had them with them up on the hill. And they saw that our leader is struggling right now. Our leader is showing his weakness, which is not a bad thing. Instead of them maybe judging him and saying, oh my God, we're totally going to lose. We're all going to die because he can't hold his hand up. They was like, Beth, okay, let me roll this stone underneath you. And you get on this side, and you get on this side. And let's hold his hands up so that way we can prevail. Now that, my friend, is that's community. And Lord has placed strategic people in your life just like the Aaron and her for you being Moses and you needing the support and showing that, hey, I need some support. Lord, I see your word here. I know what it means, but I'm still struggling. So the Lord will send you some support that can hold up your right hand and hold up your left hand to help you get to where he has you to go. Okay? Like the Lord, I love this story and I get excited about it because it didn't take, you know, Moses didn't go have to call everybody in a mama. He didn't share his business all over the place, but he just had his inner circle, his inner people that were going to help him, you know, be able to be a leader. Now keep in mind, the power was not in Moses. The power was not in Aaron or her. The power was not in the staff. However, because God could have changed the whole situation. God could have been like, oh, yeah, let me just go ahead and, you know, y'all fight and I'll make sure that you win. But I think we see one obedience and we see the purpose of community and also understanding that you can't do it all. You're not meant to do it all. So as I was having my isolated moment and I'm reading my word and I'm kind of like, okay, Lord, I'm reading my word, which we know that this is powerful. And the Lord wanted to speak to me straight through that. And that was it. That was great. But he also has placed people in my life, a sense of community, to make sure that I can have people who are speaking life into me and can pray over me and help me get to where I need to be. So that's why it's important to attend a Bible based church and to know that, you know, to know that they're preaching the word and not turn into social media or not turning to your other coping mechanisms. We have what we need. And a lot of times the Lord will place people in your life to help you get to where he has you to get so that you can prevail. And you might think, Lord, that's an odd way to do it. Can you have just put your hand down there and taken care of it? The Lord could have sent an angel to talk to me in my bedroom. I probably would have passed out. But he could have. He could have done anything to make me feel better during that time of need. But one, I know that he saw me and he brought to my mind, call us and such. All you gotta do is call that person, say that you can call her at any time. Take her up on that offer. And all she did was reinforce what is already in my word. And but sometimes it helps to hear it from somebody who's wiser than you or who has gone through a similar situation. Like the Lord gives us community for a reason. So as you face any moments where you're feeling like I'm just feeling weak or I'm feeling like isolated, maybe you're feeling lonely, whatever that looks like, tap into the resources that God has created for you. They're there for you. He has placed this here for you so you can prevail. He will have somebody holding up your right hand and somebody holding up your left hand and make sure that they have something that you can have a foundation on, that you can sit on, that you can turn to and pray about. Like he will set that up for you. All you have to do is humble yourself and realize that you can't do it all on your own. It was never designed for us to do it on our own. You know, as Lord created the entire world, the entire universe, the one thing he said that was not good was for that man should not be alone. So therefore, if the God of the universe says that, what makes you think that you're meant to do this all by yourself? No, my friend. Get your hand. Get your heart. You know, some people who are going to be like, hold you up no matter what and we're going to support you and also do what the God has called us to do. So I wanted to come over here really quick and just encourage you if you're facing times of isolation, if you're feeling weak, you know, God has placed people in your life. Ask him, Lord, what should I do? Don't try to do it all yourself. Just like Paul said, it's when we're weak, it's that the Holy Spirit will show up strong for us. He will be there for us. So I encourage you, please leave a comment down below. If you need any prayer or you can email me, you can hit up my website, Carolee.com, whatever it is that you want to reach out. I'll be happy to pray for you and be sure to like and subscribe. Thank you for tuning in. Be blessed.