This is the verse my church has been focused on.
When I read it Sunday, I nearly laughed out loud. Not because it contains some inside joke only those who attend my church would know, but because I suddenly heard the truth of it loud and clear and I could see the evidence of it in my own life.
It isn't the part about grace that got me. I grasp the idea of grace: something I am given beyond what I deserve. Well, to be honest the concept of grace I understand, but God's willingness to continually extend grace to me becomes overwhelming if I fully consider what that means. God's forgiveness, love, responses to prayer, hope, patience, provision...yes, the concept I grasp, the fullness of it's meaning is overwhelming.
God's strength is made perfect in weakness...I rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. This is the phrase that caused the laughter to well up inside me. I've experienced it you see, in my own life.
I have witnessed God's strength while experiencing the many hardships of life. However it has been the seemingly insignificant act of creating this blog that has caused me to really think about God's strength being made perfect in my weakness.
Maybe it's because I have believed God will give strength only when it is really needed, like in times of sickness or loss. But for a blog? Really? A blog isn't necessary. Right?
The difficult time I had deciding to blog came from the incredible struggle it is for me to write. It has always been painfully, tearfully impossible for me to move my thoughts from inside my head to written word.
When the Husband suggested I blog I couldn't believe he would encourage such a thing. He knew I couldn't! He knew my weakness.
I wonder if the Lord was using the Husband to plant a seed. Something He wanted to grow, I don't know why, out of my weakness.
Maybe it is for no other reason than for me to learn that He will be strength for any weakness and that I need to rely on Him in all weakness. I would prefer to ignore my weaknesses! God has blessed me, each of us, with talents and strengths that he wants us to use for His good. I would like to focus on those please. I realize however that relying on those strengths and talents alone can allow me to think they are mine and it's all about me. Working from weakness causes me to rely on God and any good outcome will have to come from His strength.
Maybe it's because there is a story He has for me to tell because someone needs to hear it. I don't know. I will just have to wait and see.
What I do know is that there are bloggers who have an incredible gift for writing and I admire their talent. I am not one of them. I will have to be OK with that. And I have come to enjoy relying on God to help me share my thoughts and trusting Him for the outcome, whether you like it or just think I'm bonkers.
And so my friends if you enjoy reading the blog, if you have laughed, cried or just read it to take a break from a hectic day I want to take the opportunity today to boast in my infirmity! It is the Lord at work in me that I am able to achieve a single coherent sentence for you to read. If your heart has been touched in a positive way it is His doing! I praise Him for it! And I laugh because He took what I know to be my weakness to show His strength.
Christine
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