I talked a
lot about God’s grace yesterday, but I would be remiss to not also mention
today what a GRACIOUS congregation we have.
Thank you for your encouraging words, your smiles as I spoke and your
genuine kindness. We are truly
lucky to have such a loving church!!
2 Corinthians
12:9 (NLT) Each time he said “My GRACE is all you need.
My power works best in weakness.”
So now I am glad to boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of
Christ can work through me.“
There is a
great book that I read several months ago is called “Glimpses of Grace” by
Gloria Furman. If you were one of
the mothers who came up to me afterwards to say that you have a lot of the same
feelings I do- you HAVE to read this book!
Whether you stay at home, or work, or have really little kids, or have
middle age kids, I think there is something in this book that would speak to
you.
In the
section “We Would Rather be Worshiped” she writes,
“God
joyfully puts the treasure of the gospel into our clumsy, butter finger hands
despite our sinfulness, inadequacies, and failings.
But sometimes we just don’t want to buy that.
Two main reasons come to mind.
First, it is contrary to our natural logic that God would choose to use
the foolish and the weak to show Himself to be wise.
We have difficulty seeing how God is praised through our insufficiencies.
Wouldn’t the Lord be more glorified through a flawlessly planned and
executed hospitality event? Wouldn’t
the Lord’s name be more honored if we knew how to articulate His goodness with
enthusiastic clarity? Wouldn’t it
give more praise to our heavenly Father when his children look presentable and
don’t have unsightly blemishes? Wouldn’t
the Creator be praised even more if His redeemed were admired the world over and
lifted up as spectacular specimens of humanity?
We find it difficult to comprehend how God chooses to use the weak and
the broken to show Himself to be strong and sufficient".
The author
continues,
“Second, we’re uncomfortable with our weaknesses and failures.
We would much rather host flawlessly planned and executed hospitality
events. We’d prefer to articulate
ourselves with clarity. We work so
hard to look presentable and defer the effects of aging.
We want to be admired.
Our preference boils down to just that- we are the ones who want to be
admired. We want to live for our
own glory. We’re sinful,
self-centered, and reluctant to worship God as our creator who has the right to
do with us as He pleases.
When we are reluctant to exalt God and recognize his position of
authority in our lives, we resent His desire to use us in our fragile, sinful
states."
Sometimes
there is a fine line with trying to be humble, and trying to get things your
way. Looking back, I think I
mistook being humble, for actually having that as an excuse to stop God from
using me. Thinking that you’re
not good enough to be used by God can sometimes be you trying to control God.
None of us are good enough to be used by God.
He’s GOD!! But, with the
power of Christ in us, He can use us in ways we cannot imagine.
So, today
is a new day! It’s the start of a
new week. Don’t underestimate the
power of Christ in you!!! He may
have something wonderful in store for you . . . . something you’re not even
expecting!
Be blessed
and live in His GRACE,
Megann
Megann
For
more:
follow on Twitter @jefflampl
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