Okay so it’s Friday when I’m writing this, and as I’m making this post I need to make sure what week it is for these posts. Anyone else notice my last Sunday Encouragement post was titled, “Sunday Encouragement Week” or the one before that was “Sunday Encouragement Week 52” even though the week before that one was week 57?

Guys I thought we had an agreement—tell me what I’m doing wrong and I’ll fix it, (albeit totally humiliated), and yet you broke that agreement leaving me totally humiliated. It’s fine, I guess I’ll just live in a hole the rest of my life.

(In all seriousness, week ’52’ has been sitting in my drafts since…well, week 52 and I forgot to update it when finishing the draft. Life is crazy right now, my brain can’t keep up! So if there’s any other strange post mishaps, then just roll your eyes and say, “Willow is so strange,” and go about your day. Thank you.)

Now, onto the actual encouragement of this post.

I’m sure there’s been a lot of times when the space that we are placed in doesn’t feel like a place we do belong. Maybe it’s because you just feel unequipped for the dreams or plans you have.

But my friend Shiloh showed me a post the other day—right when I needed it, so it’s just as much for me as it is for you—that said this:

I will not apologize for taking up the space that God has given me to fill.

The space you are filling is meant for you. God has placed you there for a reason, and to forget that reason is to forget that God is doing big things in life through you.

Sometimes this might mean a metaphorical space (like time or a certain situation) or maybe it’s more physical (like a state or even a specific place, like work or school). But either way, God has given you that space for a reason: to learn something, teach something, or maybe even give something.

I’ll give an example about enemies, since we talked about them last Thursday.

You could be learning how to love people who don’t like you.

You could be teaching others to love people who don’t like you.

You could be giving love to people who don’t like you.

Those are just three (of many) examples on that specific topic, and the sky’s the limit on what God is putting you in a specific space for.

But I don’t want that space that you are in to discourage you.

If it’s a metaphorical space—‘I don’t know why God has put me here on earth‘—then listen: you are here for a reason. That reason is good, even if you don’t know it yet.

If it’s a literal space—‘I don’t know why God has moved me to this strange, uncomfortable place’—then listen to this: you are here for a reason. Someone here might be needing you at this very moment and you just don’t realize it yet. Or maybe you need them. It’s all a matter of God’s timing.

As we kick off this new week, I encourage you to look at the things in your everyday life and see what you do that only you can do. Look at your relationships, your workplace, school, church, family life—how can you take note of where God has placed you and why He has placed you there specifically?

Lamentations three says this: ‘The Lord is good to those whose hope is in him, to the one who seeks him...’ (Lamentations 3:25 NIV)

A lot of times when we are looking for a reason as to why God has placed in this specific place or time, we’re not looking at the right thing: Him. The hope we place in Him is the foundation of the rest of our life, and when that foundation is crumbling—well, everything will fall eventually down with it.

We must trust in Him, knowing that the big outcome will work out.

I recently read Annie F. Down’s book, Remember God and the whole book was about remembering that God is good, but He is also kind. Good and kind are two different things, and I have never looked at the Lord as kind—but He is. He’s constantly showing up and giving us grace and the chance to start again.

But with those chances to start again comes change and that might mean you’re in a place you don’t want to be or don’t expect to be. But hope in Him and see Him and you will see the Lord’s kindness. And once you see the Lord’s kindness, even if you don’t understand why you are in that specific place, hopefully you will start living like you are living in the place that God put you in.

“I will not apologize for taking up the space that God has given me to fill.“

Repeat that to yourself—trust me when I say I’ve needed to say that many, many times. But saying it out loud makes you believe it, and not because you need to ‘manifest it’ but because it is true, and acting on those thoughts and speaking them out loud makes it so much easier to believe.

God is working through you, friend. And He isn’t just good, He is kind.

Thanks for reading, I hope you have a great Sunday!
~Willow