Buoyed
I was sinking again yesterday. I began the day with every intention of leaning on the Lord for His grace and strength, but by the end of the day was weary and facing discouragement again. I could describe many of my days as one drawn-out game of whack-a-mole. Kids fight. Eden fusses. Kids provoke one another to anything but love and good works. Someone whines. A drink spills. Too many questions. A failed attempt to point a kid to Christ. Bad attitudes. Someone tracks in mud. Another fight. Whack, whack, smack; trying to keep up with it all. I fell asleep wondering where God's grace was, and how I had missed it. God's grace is real, isn't it?
Yes.
I awoke this morning, as I usually do, to the insistent beeping of my alarm clock at 6:04, and after shutting it off, my first cognizant thought as I came into consciousness was precisely this: "God is not a man, that He should lie; neither the son of man, that He should change His mind. Has he said, and will He not do it? And has He spoken, and will He not make it good?" (Num 23:19) It was as if God Himself whispered that verse in my ear. And then I started thinking. Hasn't God promised His grace to me? (2 Cor 12:9) Not only that, hasn't God promised to "make all grace abound" to me? (2 Cor 9:8) Yes, and yes! So if I am promised God's grace, and God does not lie.... Well, then. There you have it.
I got out of bed and exercised, then sat down to read my Bible. This time from 2 Corinthians 1. I "just happen" to be there in my regular reading. This time, it was as if God took a large yellow highlighter across the page, as the following passage came alive:
"For we were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself. Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death. But that was to make us rely not on ourselves, but on God who raises the dead(!) He delivered us from such a deadly peril, and He will deliver us. On Him we have set our hope that He will deliver us again." 1 Cor 1:8b-10
The fights, the fussing, the provoking, the whining, the failed attempts, the endless wiping of messes, the frustrations, the feeling pulled in 6 directions at once, the math corrections, the dead ends, the wits' end, the disgusting diapers at the worst possible junctures, the zero free time; all of it! It is all so that I will remember NOT TO RELY ON MYSELF! God will deliver me.
Amen.
I don't know about you, but that was enough to buoy my spirits.
Yes.
I awoke this morning, as I usually do, to the insistent beeping of my alarm clock at 6:04, and after shutting it off, my first cognizant thought as I came into consciousness was precisely this: "God is not a man, that He should lie; neither the son of man, that He should change His mind. Has he said, and will He not do it? And has He spoken, and will He not make it good?" (Num 23:19) It was as if God Himself whispered that verse in my ear. And then I started thinking. Hasn't God promised His grace to me? (2 Cor 12:9) Not only that, hasn't God promised to "make all grace abound" to me? (2 Cor 9:8) Yes, and yes! So if I am promised God's grace, and God does not lie.... Well, then. There you have it.
I got out of bed and exercised, then sat down to read my Bible. This time from 2 Corinthians 1. I "just happen" to be there in my regular reading. This time, it was as if God took a large yellow highlighter across the page, as the following passage came alive:
"For we were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself. Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death. But that was to make us rely not on ourselves, but on God who raises the dead(!) He delivered us from such a deadly peril, and He will deliver us. On Him we have set our hope that He will deliver us again." 1 Cor 1:8b-10
The fights, the fussing, the provoking, the whining, the failed attempts, the endless wiping of messes, the frustrations, the feeling pulled in 6 directions at once, the math corrections, the dead ends, the wits' end, the disgusting diapers at the worst possible junctures, the zero free time; all of it! It is all so that I will remember NOT TO RELY ON MYSELF! God will deliver me.
Amen.
I don't know about you, but that was enough to buoy my spirits.
Comments