Hammer on Anvil '

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 about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me (2 Corinthians 12:9).

Sometimes, in the flurry of daily activity, I lose sight of this precious promise. When I was younger, for example, I remember telling God I was simply too busy to be sick. I had too many responsibilities, and apparently my presence was indispensable. Such arrogance!

The past two weeks, I have been living on this Scripture. After mowing our rather bumpy one-acre lawn a couple weeks ago, something happened to my back. The morning after mowing, I could barely walk, and my husband promptly took me to see the chiropractor. I am a natural sort of girl, and would much prefer a chiropractic adjustment to invasive medical intervention.

As I was walking from the consultation room to proceed to the treatment room, a severe spasm nearly sent me to the floor. The pain was excruciating, and I grabbed onto the door jamb with both hands to keep from falling. Fortunately my husband and the chiropractor were on each side of me, and they gently escorted me to the next room.

Nobody in their right mind likes to be in pain. But I am learning to cherish it. God uses pain sometimes to say, "It's not about you, remember? It's about My strength being made perfect in your weakness." It's not the end of the world if I can't go here and there as I choose. When I can do little else because of physical incapacitation, I can always pray. And last week as I was stretched out in my recliner, icing my back, God reminded me in a very beautiful, personal way to cherish those "down times" that allow me ample time for intercession.

I love what Oswald Chambers says:

Most of us fall and collapse at the first grip of pain; we sit down on the threshold of God’s purpose and die away of self-pity, and all so called Christian sympathy will aid us to our death bed. But God will not. He comes with the grip of the pierced hand of His Son, and says – “Enter into fellowship with Me; arise and shine."

This is a very real dynamic. It's tempting to fall into self-pity when we are suffering, and sometimes well-meaning Christian friends engage in that pity with us, instead of reminding us that it is an occasion for God to demonstrate His power. But God reaches out and beckons us, "Enter into fellowship with Me."

God's Word promises that, if I boast in my weaknesses, the power of Christ will rest on me. I'll take that, thank you.

In the aftermath of the tragedy in Connecticut, I’ve noticed something about many people in terms of how they think about God.  When times are well, we rarely think about God.  After all, if I am doing well, why do I need God?  But when times are bad, we think God must be bad for allowing it to happen.  It seems that many people are unwilling to see God no matter what circumstances they face.  I’m not sure yet what to take from this observation, but I found it interesting.

I was going to write a post about the tragedy in Connecticut, but then Mike Huckabee made a statement that I think said it more eloquently than I probably could.  Please take three minutes to watch this clip.

...er rather Philippians verses.

Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. Philippians 4:6

What is my focus in prayer? I'm sure I as well as everyone else have more than enough prayer requests and perplexing situations that I'd like the Lord's help on in my own life that I could spend every moment that I pray just on my own supplications and pleas. If I have made my supplication made known to the Lord does he forget? Should I persist with my; oh please, please please please Lord? Perseverance in prayer and being honest with the Lord about what you're struggling with is a good thing. But when does it cross the line of expressing anguish to dwelling on it? Is it healthy for us to persist, especially on topics of prayer that are particularly painful at that moment? Situations where just even in the speaking of the request it tends to be accompanied by a certain amount of worry and fear. Maybe because you truly don't know what to expect the outcome to be or even possibly because you think it might be opposite of what you're hoping for? How do we make these pleas without allowing them to drag us under because they do hurt so much? Man, of that I'm not entirely sure and I think that any churchy answer only diminishes the legitimacy of the real pain that a person feels about their situation. I know it does go on to say in the same chapter though that, "whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things." Maybe that's part of the clue to help us cope. Is he saying present your prayer and supplication, but don't be blinded by the details of your current situation and that we need to look beyond your own troubles. To dwell on areas that would be uplifting or might remind us of the nature of who we serve. That even if the answer isn't quickly coming or could even be opposite to what we might hope that we should weigh these perplexing matters out against what we know to be true and good about God? Paul goes on later to say that he's learned to be content in all situations. Is this because he's learned a level of surrender in prayer, that allows him to put his supplication to Christ's and then he's able to release the concern from his thoughts because he chooses instead of dwelling on what he doesn't know to dwell on the pure, true and lovely things. When he says, " The things you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you." v9. Is it not allowing ourselves to dwell on our worries and perplexing bewilderments that which what allows us to know peace and experience the presence of the God of peace?

CS Lewis put it like this, "By ceasing for a moment to consider my own wants I have begun to learn better what I really wanted."

For me this whole post really raises more questions then it answers because there's also the whole concept of how to practice and live this out in the midst of your trial the whole idea of not focusing on the trial that so broadly sits directly in front of you and which is just about the only thing one can see.