Week 5 - Going for the Gold!
Day 5: 2 Corinthians
12:9
9 But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in
weakness. ” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly
about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.
This week has really been a week of deep thoughts and
processing. God’s word always moves me
when I am in it with the right heart, but this week is one of those weeks where
I have just felt a flood of awareness. I
haven’t even been able to sit and write normally because I just felt like I was
coming up with unfinished thoughts.
Therefore, I chose to bank on things a couple of days. My timetable is not God’s and though I wanted
to write our daily devotion this week every day, like all the other weeks, I
also realize if God wants me to wait a day or two, I better do just that. So I did!
How refreshing to know that even the timetables are His. What a load off of us for pressure! We need goals and commitments, but even more
we need to allow God to adjust things His way.
I suspect, mostly, He will allow me to write every day. But, as this week has shown, times may arise
when He says for me to be still AND be quiet.
J Now back to where we left off….As I wrote of
Paul Tuesday in our daily devotion, it led me back into spending more time
really digging into his life again. One day wasn’t enough, since I reconnected
with him again this week. He is like a
familiar friend to me, as I have spent a lot of time over the years learning
more about him and his amazing actions of faith. As I was led down this path of the theme of
perseverance this week, I can’t get past Paul.
He is just one of those men from the bible that bring me encouragement
in a way that feels like I can almost just sit in the room and talk of my joys
and my sorrows with him, as we share our love of Jesus. And for some reason this week, I just really
wished I could. Paul is so wise and so
real. He realized that He knows grace on
a personal level so he wasn’t the type to sit in a place of legalism or harsh
judgment, but instead he sits in a place of “You just have to know what I
know! You need to experience what I
am! It’s too great not to share!” (my
idea of what he might say to me if I could sit with him…) I am captivated by his determination to help
others understand the true love of Jesus. He was so blessed in his own
redemption that he was willing to go to his death trying to persuade whoever
would listen of the availability for their own opportunity for redemption as
well. And because of his authenticity in
the matter, he is so contagious. I want
to love Jesus like Paul did! I believe
one of the greatest keys in living out the love in the authentic way Paul did
no matter his circumstances is the truth
in the verse today. Paul persisted with
joy because he no longer had a need to have it altogether. He was free to boast of his own weakness
because that is when God could really get it going FOR Him. I don’t know about you, but for me in the
season I am in (okay, any season I am in)… I do not have it altogether. And I am so very thankful His grace is sufficient
and that I am being made strong in Him!
What are you holding back, trying to be strong on your own? What is preventing your perseverance in the
freedom of His grace?
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