My Weakness is His Strength

By Donna McCrary –

“Mom, why are you crying? What is wrong with your voice?” These are not the words I wanted to hear as I exited the church platform.

It was a simple invitation to an upcoming women’s event at my church – a basic two minute date-time-and-place announcement. As I sat down at my seat my daughter’s innocent questions only added more injury to my already crushed speaking ego. I was nervous and overwhelmed with panic during the two minute announcement. My face was flush with a red glow from the “flight or fight” adrenaline rush. I was positive my pounding heart echoed over my cracking voice. Yes, it was that bad! Once I regained my composure and my breath, I made a silent vow to never again hear my voice crackling across any sound system.

Normally, I choose not to re-visit this awkward moment in my speaking career but today as I read this verse I chuckled. “But he (Jesus) said to me, My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is made perfect in weakness” (2 Corinthians 2:9). I have a weakness. My flight response is much stronger than my fight when it comes to standing on a stage. Public speaking is one of the highest ranking fears and I second that motion!

I have kept my vow to never hear my quivering voice over any loud speaker again. It has taken many days on my knees claiming every “fear not” and “speak boldly” scripture I can find to overcome this fear. To be truly honest, when I take my place on stage before any speaking event I am still the red-faced-heart-pounding-quivering-voice person. The difference is I now accept my weakness and allow the Holy Spirit to speak through me. I am always amazed at how nervous I feel right up to the moment when I am handed a microphone. Then and only then do I feel the calming Spirit settle my nerves.

After speaking events and retreats when individuals from the audience share compliments like, “You are natural on stage,” “You have such a way with words,” “You are a great speaker,” I graciously and humbly say thank you. I know my biggest weakness has become one of my favorite strengths because Christ’s “power has been made perfect in me.”

PRAYER: “Father, I thank You for creating me with weakness so I can fully comprehend Your strength and power. May You always be visible in my words and actions, both on and off the stage.”

“But He said to me, My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is made perfect in weakness” (2 Corinthians 12:9 NLT).

212 Degrees: The Extra Degree

By Jarrod Spencer –

Missing something by a fraction can make a huge difference. A kicker on a football team may miss a field goal because he went a bit too far right or left. A chemistry experiment may become volatile because the mixture was measured with just a little bit of error. There can be so many things in life that a small difference can make “all the difference” in the world!

Two hundred eleven degrees in water is nothing but hot water. It will burn you, but other than that, there isn’t much of anything special about it. But if you cause that water to become just one degree hotter…magic happens. Bubbles start to form. Power comes forth from where there was no power.

Two hundred twelve degrees is the boiling point of water. When water boils things happen that didn’t happen prior. Think of all the recipes that direct you to bring something to boil. Think of the first locomotives that were driven by steam, and the power they produced to carry heavy loads from one coast to another. Think of the germs that are killed through steam or the wrinkles in clothes that are ironed out because of steam.

Steam comes as a result of the boiling water. There is a lot of power that comes in steam and boiling. But it all “boils” down to the fact that none of that would have happened if it had not been for the extra degree …from 211 to 212 degrees.

As you are in your second month of 2012 think about moving from the degree you are now to moving another degree and imagine the impact that you/we can make for God as we produce some amazing power!

PRAYER: Father, You are amazing. You blow me away! You were willing to go to the extra degree for us to make sure that we could regain the glory we lost when sin separated us from You and that is simply awesome! Thanks for thinking of me (and others) by allowing us to have Your Son to make us whole again!

“And I told no one what my God had put into my heart to do for Jerusalem.” (Nehemiah 2:12b NIV).

Remaking Love

By Jarrod Spencer  –

Valentine’s Day – A day set aside for love and romance. However, love is not just “soft”, “pink”, and feminine as Valentine’s Day often depicts. Love is about giving ourselves, just like Christ gave of Himself. Love is about staying committed through pain.

The church is also called to love–to love one another. Love is about action, which brings us to this quote about love by Ursula Le Guin, “Love doesn’t just sit there, like a stone; it had to be made, like bread, remade all the time, made new.”

As I previously mentioned, love is an action. Love that sits is not love at all. Love is about forgiving those that wrong you. Love is about going to someone you have a problem with. Love is to be made new every morning (Lamentations 3:3). Love that remains the same will become hardened and lack elasticity. Love must be able to stretch, so you can forgive those who wrong you. If you won’t stretch to give grace to your transgressor, then love no longer is love. Christians are called to love each other. The church should be modeling love to each other and those in the world. How will you model love?

Have a great rest of your week! May you have many opportunities to model what it means to love others in a Christ-like way today, tomorrow, this weekend, and so on.

Because of His Love ~

PRAYER: Thank You for Your love! Thank you for sending Your Son and lavishing us with Your mercy be allowing us to be forgiven, despite our worthiness!

“This is how much God loved the world: He gave his Son, his one and only Son. And this is why: so that no one need be destroyed; by believing in him, anyone can have a whole and lasting life” (John 3:16 MSG).

Got Nothing?

By Robin J. Steinweg –

Sometimes I’ve got nothing. I might have overextended my energy or been sick, or had little sleep due to tending to others. Whatever the cause, sometimes I’ve got nothing left.

In the Bible, “nothing” is a void for God to fill. He created all that exists out of what was not.

God excels at taking little and making much. Israelites without food? Manna falls from the sky. No water? A touch of the rock and water flows. Gideon with only three hundred soldiers? The enemy— routed. Jars of oil and flour that never run out; a virgin’s womb carries the Son of God; water becomes fine wine at a wedding feast; a few fishes and loaves feed over five thousand—with leftovers. Broken, empty lives—like mine—made whole and filled with God’s Holy Spirit.

So when my emotions tell me I’m like a balloon with pinpricks at both ends, let me contrast how I feel with what God does with my nothing:

From depleted—to completed and replete.
From exhausted—to recharged and teeming with energy.
From drained—to supplied and satisfied.
From emptied—to filled and overflowing.
From spent—to infused and content.

Got nothing? God can do something with that!

AUTHOR QUOTE: God can do more with my nothing than I can with all my somethings. With God, “nothing” is possible!

“And I pray that you…may have power…to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God” (Ephesians 3:17b, 18a,c, 19 NIV).

Unswerving Hope

By Rosemary Flaaten –

The rain pelted against my windshield with such force that the wipers could not keep it clear. The overwhelming volume of rain pooling on the roadway created a slick covering. As I crept along, hands tensely gripping the steering wheel, I feared that at any moment my car, with its bald tires, would be caught by a gust of wind and skid across the sea of water. Suddenly from behind, a large pick-up truck approached and passed with confidence and precision. This heavy bodied vehicle enabled the driver to manoeuvre the treacherous highways without fear of swerving or hydroplaning.

There is a phrase in scripture that reminds me of my stormy driving experience. Numerous times when we are admonished to hope, the adverb unswervingly is added. Hope by definition is having a desire for something and a reasonable confidence that it is going to happen. As Christians we say that our hope and confidence is in God. But, is it really?

When the torrents of life strike – teenage children go astray, a scary diagnosis is received, a spouse betrays, a parent dies, a friend ridicules, loneliness looms dark – does our hope hydroplane? Battered by the wind and rain, do we skid from one side of the road to another, perhaps even ending up in a wreck? Or, do we have an unswerving hope in God?

I surmise that my fellow driver in the large pick-up truck, who cut through the storm without fear, knew the capacity of his vehicle and was accustomed to driving in the present formidable circumstances. This leads me to ponder how well I know God? Have I studied His character and trustworthiness? Have I prepared for the storms of life by going deep into God’s word and fostering an intimate relationship with Him? Can I recount the storms I have weathered with Him remembering that He has proven faithful?

When our hope is placed in God’s faithful presence in our life, then we will have the confidence to go through any storm knowing that God is carrying us in the palm of His hand and nothing will overcome us. God is trustworthy. He will make our paths straight. God alone is our Rock.

QUOTE: “Hope sees the invisible, feels the intangible, achieves the impossible.” Anonymous

BIBLE VERSE: “Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for He who promised is faithful.” (Hebrews 10:23 NIV)

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