Rest Ministries posted one of my devotionals today. I decided to share it with you here on my blog in its original form. To view it on the Rest Ministries web site, Click here
“He is not weak in dealing with you, but is powerful among you. For to be sure, he was crucified in weakness, yet he lives by God’s power”
(2 Corinthians 13:3b-4a).
In 2 Corinthians 12, Paul speaks about the thorn he carries in his flesh. He accepts it as a gift given to him to keep him from puffing up in pride. He is concerned for the Corinthians who are drifting from the ways of the Lord. He becomes stern in his admonitions toward them and their need of restoration.
This is background to my thoughts. We each know our weaknesses to sin and the gift we have to repent and receive forgiveness. We have examined, beyond measure, whether our physical ailments are bound to any wrong doings.We discover, rather, that they can be used to draw us closer to God and his strength. He desires for us to receive his loving faithfulness.
I recently read this phrase: consecrated weakness. It captured my imagination. At the time I read it, I was having an exceptionally weak day physically. How could weakness be consecrated? I pondered the juxtaposition of the two words.
I can bring God my weakness, whatever forms it takes. Once surrendered to Him, He can consecrate my weakness, anoint it and make it sacred to Him for his purposes. My focus is to be in the surrender of the limited strength I have. It becomes a knowing and trusting that God’s strength is what I need and what I use to do anything that He asks of me.
In 2 Corinthians 2:9a, Paul received God’s promise, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” That is a promise for each of us, as well.
It remains a mystery to me that, though I feel so physically weak, God’s strength is helping me get through the day. There is strength to accomplish what I know, in the natural, would be impossible for me without Him. There is, also, strength to accept the days when all I can do is rest, the quiet days. This sacredness, touching me in my weakness, could only come from God.
Prayer: Lord, draw me in my weakness, to receive your strength. Help me to experience your touch of strength even though I do not feel strong.Together we will journey through each day as You bless my weakness with your strength. Amen.
Surrender, when we each want control over our own lives, is a challenge equal to the challenges we carry in our body and emotions. Here, in song, is a reminder why and how it is done.
Twila Paris and Dennis Jernigan
"Consecrated weakness"
ReplyDeleteI'm glad the phrase captured you so you could share it with us. I've not considered it in quite that way, but I will now.
"It becomes a knowing and trusting that God’s strength is what I need and what I use to do anything that He asks of me." Yes. Encouraging thoughts, Lynn, as always. Thank you!
Thanks, Lisa, for your encouraging comments. I am glad I spied those two words side by side, also.
DeletePondering what they can mean has helped me view my days differently.
He always wants to take us deeper!
Excellent. A new way at perceiving our weakness and perhaps seeing it more as a friend then a foe. Thanks my dear friend Lynn... Nancy Dittert
ReplyDeleteThank you, Nancy. It was a new perspective for me to have. I was in a situation today and it came to mind as I was weakening physically. It did not stop what I was feeling but it turned my thoughts about it to know I was going to be okay. Love, L.
DeleteDear Lynn,
ReplyDeleteI wanted to thank you so much because your post truly blessed me! Your words resonated in my heart. I, too, have many days when I know that God has consecrated my efforts for me to have accomplished all that I did. I used to find my need to rest during my "quiet days" to be extremely difficult to accept and upsetting to my sense of order. I have learned much more patience with chronic illness and how I view myself, but I do have much room for improvement! Thank you, again. May you walk in the fullness of God's blessings, always. Melissa
Melissa, I am blessed by what you have shared. The difficult aspect of living with a condition that requires so much rest - the need to be slowed down from what is considered the norm of a life - remains my biggest challenge. I get caught up, like most of the world, in wanting to be productive. I struggle as I watch a day go by and I have needed to be here on my couch in a resting mode. I want each day to count - seemingly count more than being homebound so much. When God helped my perspective with the thoughts you have just read, I saw ( or am beginning to see ) that all my days are in sync with His plans or He'd orchestrate them differently. Now, I am finding He is trying to orchestrate my perspective differently! I, too, have much need for improvement.
DeleteThank you for stopping by to comment.
Love, Lynn
Thank you Lynn for posting such encouraging words!! I understand those quiet days of having to rest, and how difficult they can sometimes be. Yet I am also learning I am right where God wants me to be, and I feel His strength helping me each and every day.
ReplyDeleteI am just getting to this blog post, but it couldn't have come at a better day!!
God Bless!
Margie Scott
Margie - I, too, appreciate the times when I come upon a writing ( of any kind ) and it is the perfect time for me to read it and be encouraged. I am happy for you that you were blessed in that way today.
DeleteI think of you often there in your sweet cabin and in the quietness as you rest. It is a different way of perceiving strength - His strength - helping us and knowing that all is okay as long as we stay close to Him.
God bless you, too - always!
Lynn
Thanks for your wonderful encouragement through your blog. This post was a real blessing to me and I really appreciated you pointing me to the "On My Knees" song... just what I needed to hear! God is using you! Thanks for being an extension of His arms to us! Love to you! Roxy
ReplyDeleteRoxy, how nice to read your comments and have you "here" at my blog.
Delete"On My Knees" was a new song to me. I was looking for another song and came upon it.
Oh, how I love it now. There are some days I put it on "repeat" and just let it roll all day long! It has such a soothing quality.
Thank you for all the times you have been His encouragement in my life!
With love back to you -
Lynn