Into life eternal
Friday, August 23, 2024
God’s Work is Most Obvious When We Lose Our Way
Psalm 94:18
When I thought, ‘My foot is slipping’, your steadfast love, O Lord, held me up.
2 Corinthians 12:9
but he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness.’ So, I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me.
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Words of Grace For Today
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The contest is on: Who has the most weaknesses?
Right!?
Not.
We all want to boast how strong and competent we are. Even boast in strengths we actually do not have, so that others will see us in a better light, or so that we can win as others lose out.
But God wishes none of that game from us.
God wishes us to recognize the weaknesses that we have. Clearly. Firmly. Honestly. Even though it scares us. God wishes us to trust that when we are weak, God will rescue us, demonstrating again for us and others how God works for us all.
Hiking across the ice and snow after a long 5 day trek to the mountaintops, to view the wonders of the universe ‘on top’ she came to that most beautiful of views, up to the peak, down the valley to the river, and across the valley to the huge, tall waterfall, plunging and splashing it’s way to the pool churning from the added water each moment.
Taking it all in she held her camera as she continued walking and taking photos, for darkness would come all too soon and make any further descent unacceptably dangerous… as her foot slipped on ice she had not paid attention to. Down she went, camera flying. sliding out of control, off the path towards the cliff just feet away. Bruised, screaming, terrified, her feet over the edge…
then
her hood caught on a small tree root sticking up out of the ice.
She pulled herself, oh so carefully, back up from the precipice, clinging to that single protruding tree root,
until she could walk, gingerly, carefully
back up to the path where her camera lay.
She sat, prayed her profound thanks, poured a cup of hot tea from her thermos, took a photo of that tree root, and a few of the view.
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The tree root photo, enlarged, hangs in her office in front of her desk so that she sees it every morning as she starts her writing for the day …
a reminder of her weaknesses and God’s strengths …
and gratitude overwhelms her for a moment …
before she moves on in her day.
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How will you acknowledge your weaknesses today, and all God does for you?