December 29, 2008

• Resolve to be “Weak”
  
  
  Here is a different New Years resolution thought….

  Most of us want to resolve to be … thinner… wealthier…
  stronger… smarter… just improved in some way or the other.

  What about if we resolved to be “weaker”… less self important… less
  self focused… less self protective and less preoccupied with our
  possessions.

  I think that would be a novel idea, and a definite “contrast” to how
  the rest of the world wants to begin the New Year.  This could be the
  year that we as Christians get the opportunity to shine as the
  brightest of lights in a very dark place!

  Below is a wonderful devotional by “Pastor Roy”….

  Enjoy! Bee

  “Our country and our world are not only about to begin a new year, we
  are about to begin a new era that is more and more out of our control
  and less and less secure.  As God’s kids, we know that our Heavenly
  Father has already developed his perfect plan to include all the
  changes that are about to take place.  The question that we have to
  deal with is, ‘What kind of person does God want us to be as we follow
  him through the changes’?  Paul had to deal with the same problem in
  his life as God sent serious challenges that seemed to complicate what
  he was doing.  Paul sincerely prayed three times that God would take
  this painful problem away, but God refused each time.  God’s point was
  that the more effective he had become as a witness, the more danger he
  faced in keeping his spiritual balance.  God gave him his painful
  problem to keep Paul on the right road to increased spiritual
  effectiveness.
  
  
  
  Paul’s response can be a lesson and a pattern for each of us to
  follow.  Paul recognized that his weaknesses would be the source of his
  dependence on God to do God’s appointed work.  He knew in a whole new
  way the joy of being used by the Holy Spirit to do what only God could
  do in his particular situation.  He recognized that his limitations
  would show others the goodness of his Savior, Jesus, as he continued to
  be effective and not defeated by the challenges they caused in his
  life.  Paul recognized that he had to look differently at the negatives
  that his pain caused him in order for Jesus to fully take control of
  his heart.  What did this new outlook give him?  He was a contented
  man.  Now that he understood the reason for the challenges he faced he
  could be content with the weakness he lived with.  He could be content
  when he was insulted or faced hardships or persecutions or seeming
  disasters.  Paul recognized what we need to realize as well.  When we
  openly recognize our weakness, and become fully dependent on our
  Savior, we will become the strong people that God needs to convince a
  watching world that there really is a God who cares and a Savior who
  will go through all their hardships with them.”
  
  
  

  II Corinthians 12:9
  
  “Each time he said, “My gracious favor is all you need. My power works
  best in your weakness.” So now I am glad to boast about my weaknesses,
  so that the power of Christ may work through me. 10 Since I know it is
  all for Christ’s good, I am quite content with my weaknesses and with
  insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak,
  then I am strong.”
  
  

  • 12:35 pm
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