Lord, You are the God Who saves me. I cry out to you day and night. Receive my prayer, and listen to my cry. My life is full of troubles, and I am nearly dead. They think I am on the way to my grave. I am like a man with no strength. I have been left as dead, like a body lying in a grave whom You don't remember any more, cut off from Your care. (Verses 1-5)
"Be strong and brave. Don't be afraid of them and don't be frightened, because the Lord your God will go with you. He will not leave you or forget about you." Deuteronomy 31/Hebrews 13
But He said to me, "My grace is enough for you. When you are weak, My power is made perfect in you." So I am very happy to brag about my weaknesses. Then Christ's power can live in me. For this reason I am happy when I have weaknesses, insults, hard times, sufferings and all kinds of troubles for Christ. Because when I am weak, than I am truly strong.
(2 Corinthians 12)
I stumbled to the kitchen early one morning and somehow, with my bleary eyes, found the coffee pot. I filled it with water and poured in the grounds, waiting for even the aroma of it brewing to awaken me from the lingering anesthesia of sleep. Somehow I found my vitamins and chocolate milk (a daily indulgence I will avow always makes taking all those pills possible) and swallowed the things without their becoming stuck in my throat. I cut a piece of bread and threw it in the toaster, pushed the button down, and poured myself a half cup of coffee (couldn't wait for the coffee maker to brew an entire mug's worth). I could already taste that piece of toast. Slathered in both real butter and apple butter. I love it when they melt together on the bread. Nothing was happening, though, with that darn toast. I couldn't smell it crisping in the little red lights of the chrome machine that should make my breakfast appear any moment now. I peeked in. No lights. Nothing. My bread sat there waiting on a toaster that was...okay, it was unplugged. I told you I was sleepy. It's amazing how well the toaster worked when I gave it a little electricity.
Like me. Unplugged, I pretty much just sit there. No ideas. No real ability to make things happen. But the fact that I'm powerless without Christ makes anything possible with Him. I think about the discussions Bill and I had about how we were going to put three kids through college without bankrupting our future and theirs. We prayed and prayed about it, saved what we could (we live in California), and trusted Him. I took a job as a director of a learning center. Within months, it was taken over by Sylvan Learning Centers. Then the corporation originally owning it wanted to sell it to us. We, who had to have a job in order to survive. However, when they accepted the very low price I offered, we understood once again that unless we plugged into Him, we didn't have enough money even for that. Miraculously, truly miraculously, God provided the money. The business grew. Big enough to pay for college and then some. When our son finished his last semester, it became clear God wanted us to sell the business. Turns out it was at just the right time. Although I thought it premature in the moment.
I have also experienced the power failure when I get far enough away from the outlet that I have stretched the cord too far. I was upset with God. Didn't understand too many whys. In my life and in the lives of those I loved. Satan uses the idea that God isn't good, as he did with Eve in the garden, to cause us to slowly remove our lives from their very Source. Now don't get me wrong. God didn't move. I did. It's at this point I relate to the psalmist this morning. A limp fish, lying on my bed, crying and moaning about all that is wrong. It's not that his troubles, and mine, weren't real. Life is chock full of stuff to get over, around or through. For the whiner or for the brave. And it's very brave to face, unafraid and full of faith, the train wrecks that may come our way. It's counter intuitive to unplug at just the time we need power. Just like it seems to make no sense to be undaunted in the face of the daunting. That same power Who raised Christ from the dead dwells in me!!! (Romans 8) So He can also raise me from my bed of pain and doubt, strengthen my wobbly legs, teach my wandering mind and quell my deepest fears. If He can't, I'm as effective as my toaster without electricity. But I must engage. Make myself available again in faith, not trusting in the plan, but in the Planner. Not drawing close because I understand how it will all work out, but allowing Him to make a way where this is no way! That's how I become strong when I am weak. Here I am, Lord, plug me in! Then I get to observe His great power as it surges through a useless toaster. To see all that He can do when I think I'm almost dead, full of troubles and on my way to the grave.
As Moses said to Joshua and the children of Israel before he died, "Be strong and brave because the Lord is with you and won't forget about you." Run, walk or crawl back to the Source today. It might take a while to get there, depending upon how far away you've wandered. But the outlet is alive. The power is available. And your God is waiting for you to let go of your weakness so He can show you how strong He is.
"Be strong and brave. Don't be afraid of them and don't be frightened, because the Lord your God will go with you. He will not leave you or forget about you." Deuteronomy 31/Hebrews 13
But He said to me, "My grace is enough for you. When you are weak, My power is made perfect in you." So I am very happy to brag about my weaknesses. Then Christ's power can live in me. For this reason I am happy when I have weaknesses, insults, hard times, sufferings and all kinds of troubles for Christ. Because when I am weak, than I am truly strong.
(2 Corinthians 12)
I stumbled to the kitchen early one morning and somehow, with my bleary eyes, found the coffee pot. I filled it with water and poured in the grounds, waiting for even the aroma of it brewing to awaken me from the lingering anesthesia of sleep. Somehow I found my vitamins and chocolate milk (a daily indulgence I will avow always makes taking all those pills possible) and swallowed the things without their becoming stuck in my throat. I cut a piece of bread and threw it in the toaster, pushed the button down, and poured myself a half cup of coffee (couldn't wait for the coffee maker to brew an entire mug's worth). I could already taste that piece of toast. Slathered in both real butter and apple butter. I love it when they melt together on the bread. Nothing was happening, though, with that darn toast. I couldn't smell it crisping in the little red lights of the chrome machine that should make my breakfast appear any moment now. I peeked in. No lights. Nothing. My bread sat there waiting on a toaster that was...okay, it was unplugged. I told you I was sleepy. It's amazing how well the toaster worked when I gave it a little electricity.
Like me. Unplugged, I pretty much just sit there. No ideas. No real ability to make things happen. But the fact that I'm powerless without Christ makes anything possible with Him. I think about the discussions Bill and I had about how we were going to put three kids through college without bankrupting our future and theirs. We prayed and prayed about it, saved what we could (we live in California), and trusted Him. I took a job as a director of a learning center. Within months, it was taken over by Sylvan Learning Centers. Then the corporation originally owning it wanted to sell it to us. We, who had to have a job in order to survive. However, when they accepted the very low price I offered, we understood once again that unless we plugged into Him, we didn't have enough money even for that. Miraculously, truly miraculously, God provided the money. The business grew. Big enough to pay for college and then some. When our son finished his last semester, it became clear God wanted us to sell the business. Turns out it was at just the right time. Although I thought it premature in the moment.
I have also experienced the power failure when I get far enough away from the outlet that I have stretched the cord too far. I was upset with God. Didn't understand too many whys. In my life and in the lives of those I loved. Satan uses the idea that God isn't good, as he did with Eve in the garden, to cause us to slowly remove our lives from their very Source. Now don't get me wrong. God didn't move. I did. It's at this point I relate to the psalmist this morning. A limp fish, lying on my bed, crying and moaning about all that is wrong. It's not that his troubles, and mine, weren't real. Life is chock full of stuff to get over, around or through. For the whiner or for the brave. And it's very brave to face, unafraid and full of faith, the train wrecks that may come our way. It's counter intuitive to unplug at just the time we need power. Just like it seems to make no sense to be undaunted in the face of the daunting. That same power Who raised Christ from the dead dwells in me!!! (Romans 8) So He can also raise me from my bed of pain and doubt, strengthen my wobbly legs, teach my wandering mind and quell my deepest fears. If He can't, I'm as effective as my toaster without electricity. But I must engage. Make myself available again in faith, not trusting in the plan, but in the Planner. Not drawing close because I understand how it will all work out, but allowing Him to make a way where this is no way! That's how I become strong when I am weak. Here I am, Lord, plug me in! Then I get to observe His great power as it surges through a useless toaster. To see all that He can do when I think I'm almost dead, full of troubles and on my way to the grave.
As Moses said to Joshua and the children of Israel before he died, "Be strong and brave because the Lord is with you and won't forget about you." Run, walk or crawl back to the Source today. It might take a while to get there, depending upon how far away you've wandered. But the outlet is alive. The power is available. And your God is waiting for you to let go of your weakness so He can show you how strong He is.
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