Verse of the Week
Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, 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. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
2 Corinthians 12:8-10 (NIV)
2 Corinthians 12:8-10 (NIV)
Phrase of the Week
Just Delightful
#JustDelightful
When I was super young and out of high school, I was working a job at Baptist Hospital in Little Rock. For some reason I decided that because I was going to school during part of the day, I should work at night (slap forehead). It was tough and it worked for a few months, anyway. The people I worked with were work-out gurus. I do NOT claim to be, nor have I ever been that! However, I picked up their daily routine of running Pinnacle Mountain every morning after shift change. I started out running the base trails. I was getting fitter, but the results just weren’t there. Eventually, I started running up the easy side of the mountain, and climbing down the rocky side. Suddenly, results! I could finally visibly see that I had been doing something. I did not run Pinnacle for very long before my rigorous schedule and lack of sleep would no longer permit it. But I had proven to myself that all the stretching and pushing ahead and shin splints were really worth it!
When I stopped running I could tell. I did not feel like I felt when I was running, and certain foods that used to have no consequence suddenly stuck like glue! Since, I have found obedience to what I know to be the will of God to be costly at times.
Have you ever done a hard job and known that it went unnoticed? Like working the nursery in your church, or cooking dinner every night and cleaning the kitchen and putting the kids to bed and no one notices that you’re exhausted by the end of the day? Some days I look at the tasks ahead of me and my mind screams, “I can’t!!!”
My husband and I are both working to finish our degrees. We are raising three kids right, hopefully, and in the mean time pastoring a church. Do we believe that God has called us to get our degrees? Yes. We were both so excited when we began! We had it all on paper, how much this was going to cost us, how long it would take us to achieve each of our credit hour goals, and what the potential benefits would be in the end. We had just solved the riddle to life. Now that my first semester back is well underway, and he is in his third semester back, we realize this is HARD! There is no time for television in the evenings, and we have to budget time to spend with each other and our children.
One thing I have learned in the last few years is that there is always adversity between you and your goal. If you’re going to be obedient, you will face difficulty. The will of God is not easy! Often it involves doing the right thing alone, against the will of the crowd; even a crowd of people who believe the same way you believe. Sometimes it means leaving something wonderful for something you can only hope will be better. Sometimes doing God’s will means that even the ones closest to you and closest to your situation don’t understand what you’re doing. If the only steps I am taking towards God are easy ones, that do not cost me anything, then the rewards will be minimal.
As you walk through the difficult times remember Psalms 22:24, “He has not despised or disdained the suffering of the afflicted one; He has not hidden His face from him, but listened to his cry for help.”
He knows where you are in your walk of obedience, and He is listening when you talk to Him. One of the most encouraging verses in the Word of God is Romans 8:28, “We know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose.”He wants your love, your trust, and His very best for you.
You can walk in “radical obedience,” right through the adversity of it all, and reach the goal that God has placed in your heart by His own Spirit.
No more “I can’ts!”
Week 7 Discussion
Go to the Facebook group to join the group discussion.
- What is the difference in serving God out of duty and serving Him out of delight? What does Psalm 37:3-4 tell us we will receive from the Lord if we delight in Him?
- 2 Corinthians 12:8-10 says: “Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But He said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, 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. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.”
Do these verses give you an excuse to remain weak and subject to your “I can’t”? Or do they tell you where you can draw strength from?
- How do we tap into the strength of the Lord and use it to help us? Share what you do in your own life with us here. Share some practical steps for relying on the Lord’s strength and not our own.
I am the wife of a pastor, Matthew Hodges, mother of three beautiful kids, Rachel, Matthew, and Katie, and currently an undergraduate student at Southwestern Assemblies of God University. I am also working on my license level of credentials through Arkansas School of Ministry, and loving every minute of it!
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