Whenever I ride I wear my Road ID "just in case." I pray every ride that I'll never need it, but should a crash or colision occur, I want the first responders to be able to identify me and get appropriate medical help, as well as contact my family. But there's another reason I wear my Road ID. On the reverse side is a Bible passage, Philipians 4:13: "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me." It helps me in the midst of a long ride, when I'm climbing a steep hill, or fighting a fierce headwind to remember that verse. Christ does give me strength to go on when I remember his promise.
I thought of that verse when I read 2 Corinthians 9 this morning. That chapter contains another of my many all time favorite Bible passages, verse 8: "And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work." Paul uses the same Greek root, pas in one form or another five times in this one verse. ALL the grace, in ALL things, at ALL times, ALL that you need, for ALL the good works of God! What a promise!
Our strength is rarely sufficient for everything we need to do, for everthing God would have us do. I think of Steven Curtis Chapman's song: "His strength is perfect when our strength is gone. He'll carry us when we can't carry on. Raised in his power the weak become strong. His strength is perfect." Or Paul's words in 2 Corithians 12:10: "That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong."
It's a good thing to realize how weak we really are, for only then will we truly depend on God's strength. SCC puts it thie way: "His strength in us begins where ours comes to an end. He hears our humble cries and proves again, His strength is perfect." It makes sense that God would come through with the strength we need over and over again. "For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do" (Ephesians 2:10).
What is God asking of you today that you just don't have strength for? Forgive someone who's hurt you? Serve an ungrateful family member in love? Complete an impossibly difficult assignment? Resist the pull of that website you know you shouldn't visit? Find time to help a neighbor in need when you don't have time to get your own work done? Whatever it might be, remember this promise. ALL the grace, in ALL things, at ALL times, ALL that you need, for ALL the good works of God! Could there be a better promise for today?
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