A few years ago I used to be a nanny. I would pick one child up from nursery and then we would walk down the road to pick his older sister up from school, as we walked he would say all the colours for the cars going past and we couldn’t walk past the builders yard without watching the fork lift trucks moving sand and gravel around. We would often get to the school with 5 or 10 minutes to spare. If his day had been good he would run off and play with the other children on the climbing frame, if there had been challenges in his day or if he was tired or sad he would stay near me and just lean against me.
I recall one day he had been particularly sad at nursery and when I went to collect him he wouldn’t walk…he just wanted to be picked up. So I picked him up and chatted to him as we walked down the road. He wasn’t looking at the cars going past naming the colours like normal, he didn’t want to stop and watch the fork lifts at the builder’s yard, in fact half way down the road he stopped responding at all to me…I looked down and he had fallen asleep on my shoulder. He was leaning his whole weight on me, his day had been so hard and full of challenges he just couldn’t take his own weight.
Do you sometimes feel like that? If you have had a hard day who or what do you lean on? Maybe you go home and change into come comfy clothes and settle down on the sofa with a blanket and watch some trashy TV that you don’t have to think about? Maybe you go to a friend’s house who you know will listen? Maybe you reach for a drink or some comfort food? Maybe you go for a run/bike ride/gym session to blow off steam?
The previous archbishop of York Rev. Dr. John Sentamu once said ‘Faith is not the crutch we lean on it is the very act of leaning’. God says we can lean our whole weight on him! And even better if we struggle to do that ourselves, He gives us spiritual friends who will help us to do that. Maybe after your hard, challenging day you can message your fellowship band and say ‘I need to lean on God. Please will you help me’?
When the little boy I looked after fell asleep on me he didn’t question if I would be there. He knew from all the times I had looked after him that if he needed to just lean on me he could. We don’t need to question if God will be there when we lean on him. He promises us in 1John 4:16 “and so we know and rely on the love God has for us.”
There is a song by David Crowder about leaning on God that has spoken to me. Maybe it will help you to remember to lean on God when things feel heavy. Listen to it HERE
Rachel is the Prayer Coordinator for the Inspire Movement. If you would like to share a testimony, prayer request or an answer to prayer we would love to hear from you: [email protected]
