Heather Smith > Recent Status Updates

Day Thirty-Three: 2 Corinthians 1:4 “who comforts us in all our troubles,so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we receive ourselves from God.”

The verse doesn’t rush past the trouble but starts with the comfort.

Day Thirty-Two: Mark 14:34: “My Soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death,” he said to them. “Stay here and keep watch.”

Day Thirty-One: John 11:35, “Jesus Wept.”
Jesus wept means grief is not unfaithful. Tears are not a lack of trust. If the Son of God can stand at a grave and cry, then we can stop treating our sadness as a spiritual problem. Grief is the honest response to loss and loss deserves tenderness. Tears can be a form of prayer when the words don’t come.

Day Thirty: Hebrews 4:15, “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are; yet He did not sin.”

Jesus understands the pull, the exhaustion, the temptation and knows what it is to be human in a whole full of hurt. Jesus helps us without shaming us.

Day Twenty-Nine: Isaiah 53:3 — “He was despised and rejected by mankind, a man of suffering, and familiar with pain. Like one from whom people hide their faces he was despised, and we held him in low esteem.”

Jesus was also familiar with pain.

Day Twenty-Eight: Psalm 23:4 — “Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.”
Psalm 23 doesn’t deny the valley. It doesn’t tell us to reframe it into something cute. It names it: “the darkest valley.” And then it gives us one of the most stabilizing words in the whole Psalm: “walk.” Not sprint. Not collapse.Walk.

Day Twenty-Seven: Lamentations 3:22–23 — “Because of the LORD’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.” And then comes the daily mercy: “They are new every morning.” New doesn’t mean flashy. It means quiet.God’s faithfulness isn’t measured by how quickly your story resolve; it’s measured by how faithfully He stays.

Day Twenty-Six: Isaiah 40:29 — “He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak.”
He gives strength to the weary. Not to the impressive. Not to the “fine.” To the weary. And He “increases the power of the weak.”But this verse suggests the opposite: bring the weakness to Him, because that’s where the strength comes.

Day Twenty-Five: Exodus 16:4 — “Then the LORD said to Moses, ‘I will rain down bread from heaven for you. The people are to go out each day and gather enough for that day. In this way I will test them and see whether they will follow my instructions.’”

It teaches a different kind of trust: God will meet you again tomorrow, but you don’t have to live tomorrow today.

Day Twenty-Four: Psalm 13:1 — “How long, LORD? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me?”
God included this in Scripture. Which means God is not offended by your honest prayer. He is not threatened by your “how long.” He is not asking you to edit your pain before you speak.

Day Twenty-Three: Isaiah 43:2 — “When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze.”
Isaiah 43:2 doesn’t pretend the waters aren’t real. It doesn’t deny the fire. It says “when you pass through…” not *if* you ever do.

Day Twenty-Two: Deuteronomy 31:8 — “The LORD himself goes before you and will be with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged.”
God is already in the place I’m afraid of. He is already present in the conversation you don’t want to have, the bill you don’t know how to pay, the diagnosis you’re waiting on, the loneliness that hits at night.

Day Twenty-One: 1 John 1:9 — “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.”
God forgives because He is faithful and just—because Jesus has already made a way. Which means confession can be less like a courtroom and more like setting down a heavy bag you were never meant to keep carrying.

Day Twenty: 2 Corinthians 12:9 — “But he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.”

I used to think weakness disqualified me from being useful to God. Now I’m learning it might be the place where I meet Him most honestly.