SOS

In the simplest terms, SOS is a ‘SIGNAL’ indicating distress and the need for help, and not an acronym or abbreviation. After SOS was first used people applied their own meanings to the letters. The most popular ones: "save our ship" and "save our souls." (Source: Yahoo Answers)

This week has been a week of receiving SOS’s via text from dear friends spread out across the country.  In times like these I am desperate for a word of encouragement or guidance to give these women.  As a mom who raised a son I have had SOS moments when I have cried out: Save Our Son!” When my son was a teenager I spent many an early morning searching the Scriptures for words of encouragement and hope. The one verse that brought me relief was Romans 15:13, “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in Him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.”   It became my banner of surrender to the Lord, giving up my son once again to the Lord, who would work in my son in ways beyond my highest dreams.

You have given a banner to those who fear You, that it may be displayed because of the truth.  Psalm 60:4

So, this week as I received the SOS texts from fellow moms I knew where to go in order to send help.  One friend reached out to me who was in a place of hurt and needed my prayers and my comfort.  I was her lifeline – as Francesca Battistelli song, Hands of God, so beautifully puts it, “Every time you listen to me cause you know I need a friend. Every time you stop what you’re doing help me find my way again . . . I hope you know to me you are the hands of God.”  Her reply was, “I am helped by your prayers.”  We encouraged one another to remain faithful to the truth of God in the midst of her rejection and hurt.

Only conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or remain absent, I will hear of you that you are standing firm in one spirit, with one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel.  Philippians 1:27

  

The next day as I was walking on the treadmill, the place where I pray and listen to God as I review my scripture memory verses, another friend’s son popped into my mind.  I was reviewing a verse that I have had trouble remembering the reference. I know it is one of the gospels, but which one?  Then as I looked at the reference I realized it was the name of my friends prodigal son.  The truth of the verse fit perfectly with the prayer I was praying for him. I did not message my friend until the next morning when the Holy Spirit brought her son to my mind again prompting me to let her know the truth I was praying for her son.  Later that morning I received her response: “Thank you, thank you again for sharing this.  You have been God’s messenger to us today.”  What joy filled my heart; it was that “complete joy” Paul speaks of when he wrote to the believers in Philippi:

Therefore if there is any encouragement in Christ, if there is any consolation of love, if there is any fellowship of the Spirit, if any affection and compassion, make my joy complete by being of the same mind, maintaining the same love, united in spirit, intent on one purpose.  Philippians 2:1-2

I am humbled and so grateful that God would use me as a channel of His love!  I know that this would have been impossible had I not been seeking to abide in Christ daily.  As one of my mentors often says, “I am just one beggar offering another beggar a piece of bread.”  My desperation for God and my daily seeking the Bread of Life enabled me to share with my desperate friends a slice of hope.  We must abide in order to guide. 

“I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing.”  John 15:5

Are you sending out an SOS today? 

“Trust in Him at all times, O people; pour out your hearts to him, for God is our refuge.” Psalm 62:8 

Have you received an urgent SOS from a friend today?  Reach out with a slice of truth and bring comfort.  

“So then, brothers, stand firm and hold to the teachings we passed on to you, whether by word of mouth or by letter.  May our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father, who loved us and by his grace gave us eternal encouragement and good hope, encourage your hearts and strengthen you in every good deed and word.”   2 Thessalonians 2:15-17

Save Our Souls,

Nancy