Lessons I'm Learning: His Strength in Our Weakness

2 Cor. 12:9-10
"But he said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. 10 For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong."

God has brought the word weak to mind early on in this trial.  I have felt weak in faith, weak to face temptation, weak when I've been anxious about money, weak in ideas to solve our "problem" - just not in a place of strength.  He brought my mind to the verse above.  This has often been a go-to and familiar Scripture, but like many of the other Scriptures that God has brought to life in a different way than ever before recently, these verses spoke to my soul in a new way. 

As I meditated on the truth of these words, I realized that His power is made perfect - without lack, complete, because I am weak - unable to do anything in my own power or strength.  When I am unable, He is able.  Looking at the flip side, when I am being self-sufficient, trying to "fix" things in my life on my own efforts and works, and I am so called "strong", I leave no room for my heart to need God.  I don't cry out to Him for help, more faith, strength to persevere.  I can't see Him at work because I think somehow I've done it, and that the glory belongs to myself.  But it is when I relinquish my "control" and go to Him fully dependent on Him, His power rests upon me, and He is glorified for showing Himself strong. 

The word weak brought me to another Scripture, as God brought the thought that being weak excludes the idea of being completely broken or unusable or laid to waste.  Weakness implies that there is still something there, hanging on.  Not strength to the fullest, but nevertheless there.   

2 Cor. 4:7-10 - "But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us. 8 We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; 9 persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; 10 always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies."

The passage doesn't use the word weak, but describes those things that drive us to a weakened state - affliction, being perplexed, persecution, being struck down.  But notice God says, that we are afflicted, BUT NOT crushed; perplexed BUT NOT driven to despair; persecuted BUT NOT forsaken; struck down BUT NOW destroyed.  The treasure that Paul talks about here, if you look in the preceding passage, is the light of the gospel.

Jesus said in John 16:33, "I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.”  Jesus Himself said that we would have tribulation in this world, but because He has overcome the world, we can have the peace of God that surpasses all understanding and guards our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus (Philippians 4:7).  Tribulation, yes, but NOT to the point of being crushed, in despair, forsaken, or destroyed because we have the light of the gospel.  We have the truth that the trials we face here on earth will come to an end one day when we are with our Savior face to face.  And that the trials that Jesus suffered Himself far surpass anything that we might face ourselves, so He is able to help us in our weakness. 


In my weakness, I am encouraged that though I feel helpless, anxious, fearful, His promise to me was that His strength will be manifest in my life and in my trial.  And I can testify that it has! I have felt His nearness as He has grown my faith, grown my prayer life, grown my hunger for His word and for Himself, and even my longing for Heaven.  I know we are not at all in the clear, but God has put my heart on a path to trust Him.   

Lessons I'm Learning: Our inheritance in Christ

Romans 8:15-16

"For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!” 16 The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, 17 and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.

Reading this Scripture for me recently has brought new meaning for me.  As I'm striving for a life of simplicity, and can sometimes grumble and be discontented by the things I think I don't have, this verse encourages me to put my eyes and heart on what is unseen like in 2 Cor 4:18

- "For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, 18 as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal."

God reminds me in Romans, that Jesus and his perfect obedience, and taking my sin upon the cross to bear the punishment of it, and then being raised from the dead, He has secured an inheritance for me.  This boggles my mind!  Me - once an enemy of God, now not only forgiven, but a "fellow heir with Christ"! Christ, who is the Son of God! This is not just any ordinary inheritance, but I have become an heir of God!  Anything I think I'm giving up in this world pales in comparison to what God has promised me in eternity because of His son.  The inheritance is being kept for me in heaven:

"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, 5 who by God's power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time."  - 1 Peter 1:3-5

I can rejoice in the promise of our Faithful God!

Lessons I'm Learning: If I have Christ, I have everything

As we have simplified our expenses over the past couple of years, but most in the recent months, and let go of those things that I thought were necessities, have really given me perspective.  I can get lost in the things of the world.  I can look around my at what God has blessed others with, and think that is the standard.  There have definitely been hard moments of "letting" go, don't get me wrong, especially when certain things have become more the norm.

But what I've come to see over the past couple of months, is that if I have Christ, I have everything!  It doesn't matter if I can't buy new clothes, a bigger house, the newest things.  In the end, everything in this world will pass away.  And at the end of my life, I can take nothing from this world with me.  But if I have Christ, I have all of God's promises to me in heaven and on earth.   

Matthew 6: 19-24
"“Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, 20 but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

22 “The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light, 23 but if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!

24 “No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money."

I want to lay up treasures in heaven, and not on earth.  God says very clearly, that I cannot serve both God and money.  So if I am loving money, then I am hating God, and if I love God, I must hate money.  God is helping our family to grow toward loving Him more than money.  More on this later, but it's been a journey teaching our children a life of simplicity as well.