Strength In Weakness

This a a fantastic, short (only 4 paragraphs!) explanation of Why did God say to Paul,"my strength is made perfect in weakness"?

https://www.raptureready.com/faq/faq365.html

What NOT to Say

Here's a helpful article: 12 Things You Should Never Say to A Person With A Chronic Health Condition

{God} takes no pleasure in the strength of a horse or in human might. No, the Lord's delight is in those who fear Him, those who put their hope in His unfailing love. Psalm 147:10-11

Focus

I almost tossed this picture. The rose is all out of focus! In fact, the only thing my eye can clearly make out is the background, and look at all those nasty thorns!

Oh wait. Isn't this a perfect picture of my life sometimes? So often I miss out on the amazing beauty and blessings right before me because I'm focusing on the annoying, the irritating, the ugly, the painful.

Lord, please help me to remember that even when you give thorns, they are always accompanied by gifts of grace. Sometimes I may have to work harder to adjust my focus than other times, but when I look for your blessings, they are always there.

I was given the gift of a handicap to keep me in constant touch with my limitations. Satan's angel did his best to get me down; what he in fact did was push me to my knees. No danger then of walking around high and mighty! At first I didn't think of it as a gift, and begged God to remove it. Three times I did that, and then he told me,

My grace is enough; it's all you need.
My strength comes into its own in your weakness.

Once I heard that, I was glad to let it happen. I quit focusing on the handicap and began appreciating the gift. It was a case of Christ's strength moving in on my weakness. Now I take limitations in stride, and with good cheer, these limitations that cut me down to size—abuse, accidents, opposition, bad breaks. I just let Christ take over! And so the weaker I get, the stronger I become.
- 2 Corinthians 12:7b-10 (The Message)

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Thank you to my sweet friend Abby of Mavora Art and Design who took this idea and made it into my beautiful new header! Feel free to visit her website or follow her on Facebook.

National Invisible Chronic Illness Week

Welcome to National Invisible Chronic Illness Week (Invisible Illness Week, or IIW for short)! Please join me in watching this video produced by my dear friend, Lisa Copen, founder of both Rest Ministries and IIW.



How will you observe IIW? What can you do to spread awareness, comfort, or simply snuggle into the resources and reality or hope and support extended to you?

Being Whole

I am in pain, sick, frail, homebound, bedbound, without great possibility or potential in my future.

In all of that, I am whole. I am complete. I am exactly what God made me to be in the exact time He created me to be it...

To read more reflections on what it means to be "whole" and how we can get there even in the midst of illness (not to mention validation for putting up with all those who tell us that wholeness will come through their sure cures), visit Gitz today and read about Whole.

Weakness in Strength

This blog is about finding strength in the midst of weakness, but I love Lysa TerKeurst's thoughts today about how, "We are only as weak as our strongest link." Yup, if that statement make you scratch your head, you probably read it right. If it didn't make you do a double take, read it again! Here's more from Lisa about recognizing the weaknesses of our strengths.

While we are thinking about weakness and strength, this great reminder from Tricia Goyer on a recent homeschooling interview sure caught my attention. "Don't compare. We always compare our weaknesses to other people's strengths!" I can apply this to my life in so many areas and love the reminder that God has a unique plan for my life. Strengths, weaknesses and all, this is the life God has given to me and to me alone. I don't need to measure up to anyone else's standards because I'm not called to live anyone else's life.

Gift or Curse?

I found this video link to David Ring after reading (in)Courage today, where Allison Morrison shares about raising her long-awaited son Sam, who was born with Cerebral Palsy. She writes,

"I’m not gonna sugar coat it–we just could’ve done without CP in our lives. But God saw fit to give it to us anyway. So what do we do with it?

"Before last night we would’ve bumbled along doing the best we could praying for a miracle healing. But after hearing David speak it’s a whole new ballgame... [CP] is our opportunity to show others how God has been good to us. Did we ask for CP? No way. Did David? Nope, but as he said he wouldn’t trade his life for a minute... He is blessed and so are we–so is Sam.

"It is up to us to help Sam develop his full potential and then to get out of the way and let God work. We gave Sam to God when he was born and we have to accept how God intends for him to be.

"We must not waste this opportunity that we’ve been given. We have been entrusted with something sacred and we have to praise Him and trust His plans for us!"

Visit Alison at (in)Courage to read more.

As Joni Eareckson Tada says, “God aborts devilish schemes to serve His own ends. God permits what He hates to accomplish that which He loves. Heaven and hell can participate in the exact same event, but for different reasons.”

Surviving

Bonnie Gray shared some great thoughts on Surving the In-Bwtween Times today over at (in)Courage. What really stood out to me was her thoughts on John 15:5.

"Abide in me and I in you and you will bear fruit." John 15:5

Abiding doesn’t sound impressive. I doubt it’d make a good marketing slogan or create much buzz in today’s speaking circuit. Kinda archaic compared to our self-made headlines.

Yet, it is the one action Jesus reveals in His secret to living a fruitful life. What does it actually mean? I wondered?

The Greek word for “abide” is Meno

1. to survive

2. to be held

3. to wait

I was stunned. Simply surviving makes a difference to God...

His Strength