Yesterday was a challenging day in several areas of life. I’m sure it wasn’t as challenging as some of your days or as some that I may yet face, but still, there were some emotions like Asaph described: “Thus was my heart grieved and I was pricked in my reins!” (Psalm 73:21).
You know, sometimes you have hard things and you know how to fix them, even though the fix is painful. Then there are other things that, at least in your small purview, leave you bewildered as to what to do. Yesterday held several of those challenges.
God always has strength for those days. This morning, up way before His sun, first I prayed. (I think I was Asaph again saying “My flesh and my heart fails, but God is the strength of my heart, and my portion, forever” (Psalm 73:26).
Then I studied Asaph. I found (as our study prompted) prayers of desperation and then shouts of his majesty. I needed both of those this morning. Then I went out for a neighborhood walk in the stillness of the new morning. And I prayed some more.
As I was coming back toward my kitchen door, I realized that, in all of the busy-ness that was yesterday, I had failed to check the mail. When I opened that box, I thought, “I’m going to need a bag. I will never get in the house with all these letters and packages.”
And right there, in the middle of that huge stack of things ordered, and bills, and statements and ads, was the sweetest Digger note I think I have ever read (along with gifts from that McCook, Nebraska local and zoom group.) A little pink leather business card holder, with Romans 10:15, that’s perfect for my little Bible-study-invitation cards was in there, along with a big gift card to Connors Steakhouse. But the best part was the words of Jennifer Allen, that included statements like these:
“…That first year’s study changed my life! It made me confident in a way I had never been. Not because I had all the answers, but because I knew I could do it. It opened the Bible up to me in a way I had never seen it. I had done may book-by-book studies, but the way this study went from the very beginning to the very end, showing truths throughout, gave me a new perspective. It helped pull it together for me in a way that changed me.
I became passionate about encouraging other women to challenge themselves in Bible study. It made me a much better Bible class teacher. I became passionate about changing our children’s class curriculum to give our children a good solid base. We have since changed all our curriculum from cradle roll up, to be all wonderful, brotherhood created, intentional curriculum. It made me passionate about family Bible time. I know this will sound foreign to you, but I had never even heard of that concept….This is something that is not done or taught around here.
…God really is so good! He truly is the God of MORE!”
She said a lot more about how she unintentionally stumbled on PTP and Digging Deep. She talked about starting a group 14 years ago with four women and then she named 36 women in six states and one foreign country who are currently digging in person and via zoom in this same group. She thought she was relating some history to me. She didn’t know she was determining the course of my actions and reactions in a time of difficulty. She thought she was saying “Thanks for digging.” . But she was really saying “Get up, Cindy Colley. Our God has got this!”
Of course, it’s true. The sword, the lamp, the sanctifying Word is the source of all our strength. It is surely not me and it is not even Digging Deep. The Word is precious, palatable and powerful. It is all we need in every endeavor. It is sufficient and more than enough.
(I am going to study that Word today with a woman who desperately needs to see that sufficiency. I am praying that I can cause her to want to depend on that Word for the horrific things she is facing.)
And, while, through this wonderful mail, Jennifer was telling me how Digging Deep had opened her eyes to blessings that had changed her for the better, she, unwittingly opened my eyes to blessings that come through this encouraging sisterhood to which we belong! And those blessings, in turn change me for the better. How I needed her gift today! (Not the one that will go in my purse (though it is so kind and generous!), but the one that’s filed in my heart! How we need each other and how our God smiled on us when He placed us in a family!
I can do today now!
Again, like Asaph, I say:
It is good for me to draw near to God;
I have put my trust in the Lord GOD,
That I may declare all Your works. (Psalm 73:28).
Well, you bring me to tears
Podcast dates are as follows for the rest of 2026:
and babies are in our world of big blessings for eternity.
…worshipped many times.
Here’s a little blurb from next year’s study. I hope you’re planning, even as we are about half-way through the current study, to keep the Dig, as a part of your world through 2026 and 2027. I can’t imagine mine anymore without it. His word is so powerful for us. This quiet week of being in it transforms me every year, bringing me to repentance about my recurring discouragement or apathy (and really, lots of other things), and bringing me to a new level of awe at the two-edged sword I bring with me to this hotel.
I include this paragraph for our study because we have so many persevering women in this study group. So many of you have made monumental changes in your lives to be pleasing to God. Some of you have suffered mocking, as Jeremiah mentions. Some of you have surrendered positions, jobs and family relations to serve God. Some of you have been isolated, even being rebuffed by husbands or children for remaining steadfast in your faith. It is for your strength that I want to notice how Jeremiah, the strong, weeping prophet, felt.
