In Our Weakness, He Is Strong

“And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” – Philippians 4:7

                “To make or become quiet; to be silent; to stop.  When the thunder would not peace at my bidding” (Webster’s Dictionary).  The absence of a storm, is that peace?   Many people, I think, would say yes.   They would say that there is peace when the sky is clear and the water is calm.  But, I find it interesting that even in Webster’s Dictionary the quote says, “When the thunder would not peace at my bidding.”   The thunder did not silence, instead the person silenced.  They stopped, became still, and sat in quiet silence as the storm raged on around them.   Is that not what we are supposed to do as Christians?

                The last couple weeks I have been thinking a lot about Paul and his writings.  Then this Sunday we were in the book of 2 Corinthians chapter 12, where Paul talks about the thorn in his side.  He writes, “Therefore, in order to keep me from becoming conceited, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger from Satan to torment me.  Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me” (2 Corinthians 12:7-8). But, God says no.  How often can we relate to this?  We are in a storm, a hardship, or facing a challenge and we beg God to just take it away.  We ask that He would give us peace, that He would clear our vision, and that He would calm the storm in our lives and our hearts.  We beg, and yet so often we are met with the two letter word “no.”  Why?  Because in Jeremiah 29:11 God says, “For I know the plans I have for you declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future.” 

                 God never puts challenges and storms in our lives to trip us on purpose, He doesn’t want to harm or hurt us.  No, He puts challenges in our lives to make us run to Him, to grow us, to make us stronger in His power and to keep us humbled at His feet.  God’s answer to Paul was this, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” It is when we turn our eyes upon Him, and lean on His strength and not our own, that we have peace.  We might be facing something that is impossible to handle in our own strength, but with God everything is possible.  As Paul says, “for Christ’s sake I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardship, in persecutions, in difficulties.  For when I am weak, then I am strong.”  We must first accept our weakness, then “Let Go and Let God,” and that is when we find His peace. For when I am weak, God is strong.

VBS!

So, last week we had a VBS here in Costa Rica, It went so well and we saw God's hands moving. God sent down a team to make it all possible, but not only did they bless these kids and this town, they blessed Haley and me. The kids here can actually be really shy with new people, but we just watched as this team poured the love of Christ over them, and the kids opened up. We also became part of their team while they were here, it wasn't them and us, it was everyone working together to further God's kingdom. We got to spend the night with these amazing people, spend time in fellowship, prayer and devotionals. An answer to prayer. I don't know if they will ever know how much they blessed all of us here. God has perfect timing and He knows exactly what He is doing. We watched so many kids give their hearts to Jesus, and there were Bibles placed in their hands. Please keep the kids in your prayers and thank you for all of your prayers, the VBS was awesome.

Peace In Our Confusion

“You saw me before I was born.  Every day of my life was recorded in your book.  Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed.  How precious are your thoughts about me, O God.  They cannot be numbered!  I can’t even count them; they outnumber the grains of sand!  And when I wake up, you are still with me!”  - Psalm 139:16-18

“In the morning when I rise, give me Jesus.  When I am alone, give me Jesus.  When I come to die, give me Jesus.   You can have all this world, just give me Jesus.”  I love this song, it reminds me of the verse that says, what good is it to gain the whole world but lose your soul?

In this life we have so many plans, so many desires, but the only desire we need is Jesus Christ.  It can be so easy to become the Martha, instead of the Mary, and get so caught up in the work we are doing for Jesus; consequently, forgetting to just sit at His feet, to desire Him and Him alone. While in Guatemala I remember Pastor D saying, “We need to be distracted by Jesus, so that nothing else can distract us away from Him.”  If we are so caught up in Jesus, that nothing else can grab our attention, then we are definitely in His sweet spot.  This though, of course, is easier said than done.

Reading this verse I focused on the first half.  God has a plan and He has known the end since the beginning.  How nice it would be to know God’s plan.  Being in IGNITE has definitely confused the plan (aka. “My Plan”) a little bit.  Which, to be honest, can be hard.  My life has always had an order in my mind, there was a plan.  Everything else could fall apart, but I had control over one thing, where I was going. Well, at least that is what I thought.  Ehhh, wrong. God’s plan is bigger than my plan, it has more turns and bridges, it requires faith and trust in the One who is guiding me.  To follow His plan requires me to constantly be running to Him for guidance, to constantly be seeking His face, and to constantly be distracted by Him.  

That is what made me focus on the second half of this verse, “And when I wake, you are still with me!”  Life, sometimes can feel like a path with no light.  You know that you are walking on the path, you know it is guiding you to where you need to go, but you have a blindfold covering your eyes.  One has to trust the one guiding them on the dimly lit path.  It is when one lets go of the guide that one gets lost.  Just like when we become distracted by other voices, many times our own, instead of following the Holy Spirit that we too get lost.   We need to know our shepherd’s voice, He needs to be our all in all, the one who consumes our thoughts.

Only then will the path slowly shed light.

But even then,

We must trust. 

We Don't always know what is next, or what we are called for in any certain instance.  God never promised us complete clarity, but He did promise us His peace.