About a year ago, I felt this phrase in my spirit:
“No one is coming to save you. You have to save yourself.”
Initially, it felt like some self-help, motivational cliche, or a phrase that would ruffle some feathers, if interpreted as minimizing the saving power of the One whose very name means, “He saves.”
So I sat with it and let it teach me what it was meant to and here’s what I’ve learned.
For the better part of 5 years, I have struggled with severe hormonal issues and cycle-related depression. And that feels like the most watered-down version I can offer because truth is, it’s utterly crippling at times. It’s not something I talk about very often but maybe I should. Perhaps I would discover that I am not alone and there are so many women deeply affected by it.
In my mind, the miracle would be that God would hear my prayers and deliver me of this monthly thorn in my flesh and help me feel a little more balanced and a little less depressed each month. Right?
Except for He has. He has heard every prayer ever uttered from my lips and the ones I thought about but didn't have the strength to pray, while laying on that mat next to the pool called, “Come Enjoy Your Life.”
And He has given me the power and the ability to get off that mat and walk.
Sometimes saving yourself looks like better self-care.
Better boundaries.
Moving your body.
Getting in the sunshine.
Therapy sessions.
Drinking more water.
Finding a healthy community.
Or finding solitude.
Phoning a friend.
Making the appointment.
Trying the medication.
Finding purpose outside yourself.
God is not going to do for me what I can do for myself. And sometimes salvation arrives at the very moment of my realization that He has given me the ability to participate in saving myself.
No one is coming to save us.
God has parted the seas and He has also commanded us to walk through it.
Let's do this. Let's walk.