I Am Not Strong

    The thing I probably most often hear is 'I don't know how you do it.'  I typically respond with something along the lines of 'You do what you have to.'  But I am here today to tell you I am not strong!  But guess what, 'I am tethered to Someone who is strong!" (Nancy Guthrie in Be Still, My Soul).  Hebrews 6:17-19 says "So when God desired to show more convincingly to the heirs of the promise the unchangeable character of his purpose, he guaranteed it with an oath, so that by two unchangeable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled for refuge might have strong encouragement to hold fast to the hope set before us.  We have this as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul..."   This is why I can have hope. I can secure myself to the promises of God, and in that, I have hope.

 

    I have been reading a lot on pain, and I have learned that pain is warning signal that something is wrong.  We feel heat so that we won't just stick our hand into the oven and thus burn our hand; we feel pain in the soul to remind us that this is not our home.  The pain we feel from suffering will push you into God if you will let it.  Don't let pain make you feel like God doesn't care, but rather that He does!  Tim Keller points out that 'Paul says that the suffering and hardship he has experienced is not a denial of the gospel, but a confirmation of the gospel.' Paul says in 2 Corinthians 4:8-12 "We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies.  For we who live are always being given over to death for Jesus' sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh.  So death is at work in us, but life in you...He who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus and bring us with you into his presence.  For it is all for your sake, so that as grace extends to more and more people it may increase thanksgiving, to the glory of God.  So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day.  For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison."  What a wonderful promise!  With God as our Anchor, no matter what is thrown at us, we will never be destroyed.  Even though it may feel like I have nothing left in me at times, God will still use me to show his glory!