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Thursday, January 14, 2010

His Strength Is Made Perfect In My Weakness

This morning I woke up realizing I was in need of a much needed break. I was crabby with all those around me not because of anything they did, but because of the monotony and busyness of life. My strength had hit rock bottom. My husband, being the kind and compassionate husband he is, told me to just take the day off and do what I wanted to do. He said that he would teach school to the children. I took him up on the offer and did our errands, cleaned house, cooked meals, read blogs for a long time, exercised, and listened to Nancy Leigh DeMoss. The Lord knew exactly what I needed. His strength is made perfect in my weakness. She spoke on Isaiah 40:28-31 "Have you not known? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary; His understanding is unsearchable. He gives power to the faint, and to him who has no might He increases strength. Even youths shall faint and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted; but they who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint." Now this verse brings much encouragement to my weary soul. I do believe that I will be committing it to memory this year. I am planning on memorizing and meditating on one verse per week this year. I want to grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Nancy DeMoss spoke about how that we should behold our God. He comes with might and power. His arm rules. He is in control of all things. The Lord is also tender and compassionate shepherd. He cares for us like no other. Do we find others thinking less of God because of our responses to life's circumstances or do we find others seeking God because we turn to God for all of life whether good or bad? If we do not behold our God in the midst of life's circumstances then we will become bitter and angry with God. We must behold our God! In order to do this we must go back to what we know is true. We must exercise our faith. God has no weakness. He never runs out of strength. Many days we grow weary and weak. We have no more strength left to face our families. Behold our God! He gives us His strength. His power is made perfect in our weakness. We must come to the end of our strength to know God's strength. As a mom, there may be times when our children are sick and we are up all night with them. We anxiously wait for the morning to come. Just as we wait for the morning to come when our children are sick, we wait for the Lord when we are without strength and our strength will be renewed. To be renewed means that we exchange our strength for His strength.

Eagles are amazing birds. Storms arise and they mount up their wings and fly above the storm. When storms arise in our lives the Lord will lift us up above life's storms. He will allow us to keep running without growing weary. Where do you turn when life becomes overwhelming? Turn to the Lord. His strength is made perfect in our weakness.

I want to end by quoting a great hymn, Higher Ground by Johnson Oatman, Jr.
I'm pressing on the upward way, new heights I'm gaining every day; still praying as I'm onward bound, "Lord, plant my feet on higher ground." My heart has no desire to stay, where doubts arise and fears dismay; tho' some may dwell where these abound, my prayer, my aim, is higher ground. I want to live above the world, tho' Satan's dart at me are hurled; for faith has caught the joyful sound, the song of saints on higher ground. I want to scale the utmost height and catch a gleam of glory bright; but still I'll pray till heaven I've found, "Lord, lead me on to higher ground." Lord, lift me up and let me stand by faith on heaven's table-land; a higher plane than I have found- "Lord, plant my feet on higher ground."

1 comment:

Erika said...

Thank you! I needed to hear that. I am a stay at home mom of 3 healthy little boys, and my husband is the assistant pastor. I had a very close relationship with God 6 years ago, before marriage and children. Suddenly, I was blessed with a wonderful God fearing husband and 3 beautiful boys now ages 2, 3, and 5. With it, also came an overwhelming amount of responsibility, and stress. Over time, I let myself stray away from God. As a result, my word level fell, and I started developing all sorts of physical symptoms. At 33 (March '10), I was diagnosed with Type II diabetes. I felt so sad and angry at this diagnosis and thought if I had never gotten married and had kids in the first place, I would still be a size 8 and healthy, not sleep derived and a size 22! Of course I didn't mean that. Since the diagnosis, I've lost 20 lbs but I still struggle to eat balanced meals because of the time constraint, to get more sleep. There's just not enough time in the day to good care of my husband, children, AND me. Through the grace of God, I'm learning. I'm getting better at not being quick to take out my tiredness and frustrations out on my sweet husband and children. He makes it a point to take the kids off of my hands for a while when he gets home, and kisses my cheeks daily and tells me how much he loves and appreciates me. He told me he will continue to love me as Christ loves the church no matter how moody I get, and that he's here for me and that he doesn't know how I do it on a daily basis. I thank God for such a sweet and understanding husband. It is a breath of fresh air knowing that I am not alone. I found this post by accident. I was looking for something encouraging to say to my cousin who lost her young son in a car accident a few weeks ago. She almost accidentally committed suicide a week ago from taking too many pills because the pain of losing him was so great. I am so sorry to hear about your daughter as well. God is really using you to help others like me, so be encouraged and let Him use you. Take care.