Scriptures that pulled me through 2009...

It was easily one of my most challenging years, and spiritually speaking, there were times when it was brutal. And in most cases, it was all internal... externally, everything seemed fine and it's possible no one noticed the battle or the growth within me. God has placed treasures in His Word that carried me through it all, and here's just a few of them.

"To keep me from becoming conceited because of these surpassingly great revelations, there was given me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. 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. That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong." -- 2 Corinthians 12:7-10 (NIV)

"He also brought me out into a broad place; He delivered me because He delighted in me." -- Psalm 18:19 (NKJV)

"The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is on me, because the LORD has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners, to proclaim the year of the LORD's favor and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn, and provide for those who grieve in Zion—to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair. They will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the LORD for the display of his splendor." --Isaiah 61:1-3

"I will repay you for the years the locusts have eaten—the great locust and the young locust, the other locusts and the locust swarm—my great army that I sent among you." --Joel 2:25

In 2009, God's Word was living and breathing in my life again... it spoke clearly into my immediate circumstances. It had been several years since I allowed the Lord to work like that so consistently. These verses exploded off the page at the perfect time this past year, and galvanized my armor for the road ahead.