Tag Archives: God’s Strength

Strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow…

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“Give us this day our daily bread…”
(Matthew 6:11 ESV)

Its Wednesday again, and here I am wondering What am I going to write about today?  Relentlessly Wednesday keeps coming, and I struggle to find something that will be a blessing to you.  I am so thankful for the encouragement that you give me, telling me how what I have written has encouraged you, how the midweek message is just what you needed to hear.  Sunday’s don’t bother me as much.  I’ve been preaching for almost 10 years now, I know how to study and prepare.  But this weekly writing is new to me.  I still get anxious for Wednesdays.

Each of us has that one thing (or many things) that we get anxious over.  What will I write about?  Will I get that job?  Will he/she ask me out for the Homecoming Dance?  Can our marriage survive this?  Will my family/children be provided for if something happens to me?  Will I recover from this illness?  Will I be welcomed and secure in my new home?  Can I find the strength to overcome this temptation and avoid sin?  Sometimes the thought of what is coming tomorrow can crush us today.  We can be so overcome and overwhelmed by anxiety about what may come that we lose hope and begin to despair.

One of the most repeated commandments of scripture is, “Do not be afraid.”  Jesus knew the tendency of our hearts was to lose sight of what God has done in the past, to fixate on the uncertainty of our future, and to be overcome with anxiety and despair.  This is why He taught us to pray to God for our daily bread – to teach us and remind us to trust in God daily for the grace we need to face the day.  Just as God provided manna in the wilderness (Exodus 16:35), just as God feeds the birds and clothes the lilies in all their splendor (Matthew 6:28), God will provide for you.

Simply telling you not to worry, though, is only half the solution.  Often times, we have to supplement a negative behavior with a positive one (I used to vacuum whenever I wanted to snack at night).  The same thing applies to your spiritual life.  Unless you supplant your anxiety with something else, you will soon return to your fears and doubts.  So what can you do?

Think about today…  Jesus pointed out the futility of our anxieties, “Which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life…  Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious enough for itself” Matthew 6:27).  Stewing over the problems we face and our inability to deal with them only compounds the problems.  Too often we rely on our own resources and our limited vision, and wind up in a bigger mess than when we started.  But when we realize that our God is bigger than the problems we face, we can find great strength and encouragement.  Lamentations 3:22-26 says, “The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.  ‘The Lord is my portion,’ says my soul, ‘therefore I will hope in him.’  The Lord is good to those who wait for him, to the soul who seeks him.  It is good that one should wait patiently for the salvation of the Lord.”  We need to learn to wait for the Lord, to trust in his grace that he has given for this day.

Great is thy faithfulness, O God my Father,
There is no shadow of turning with thee;
Thou changest not, thy compassions they fail not;
As thou hast been thou forever wilt be.

Prayer and Thanksgiving… Paul teaches in Philippians 4:6, “do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.”  How many times do we run headlong into a problem without ever taking it to the Lord in prayer?  Don’t we usually find ourselves up to our necks in our own undoing before we finally cry out to God?  Take a moment right now and think of those things that you are most anxious about.  Now tell God about it, make your request before the throne of God, and be sure to thank God for listening and for the ways He’s worked in your life before and continues to work today.  Go ahead… I’ll wait.

Pardon for sin and a peace that endureth,
Thy own dear presence to cheer and to guide;
Strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow,
Blessings all mine, with ten thousand beside!

Trust in His promises – One of the things that prayer and thanksgiving does is it helps us to remember God’s faithfulness in the past, and his promise for the future.  When the Israelites began to wonder whether God would deliver them, they would be reminded of the way His mighty right arm and delivered them from Egypt and provided for them in the wilderness.  When the early church faced persecution and oppression, they were encouraged by remembering the mighty work of deliverance through Jesus our savior.  Even today, when we wonder if maybe this obstacle is too big for God, let us remember all that God has done and have hope for what he is about to do.  God has promised good things (Jeremiah 29:11, Romans 8:28), and “God is not man, that he should lie, or a son of man, that he should change his mind.  Has he said, and will he not do it? Or has he spoken, and will he not fulfill it” (Numbers 23:19)?

Great is thy faithfulness!
Great is thy faithfulness!
Morning by morning new mercies I see;
All I have needed thy hand hath provided
Great is thy faithfulness, Lord, unto me!

SDG

Camping… July… and a little Good News

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I can’t believe July is already gone.  Ever since we came back from vacation, things have been moving as such a break-neck pace I havn’t had a chance to sit down and update my blog.  Sorry to keep everyone in the dark. Let me do a couple of things in today’s update: 1) Share highlights from my camping trip, 2) Explain my absense in July, 3) Share some Good News! (If you don’t care about my camping trip, or about my July, please at least scroll down to the Good News)

Camping– I last wrote about how excited I was to go camping – and it was everything I could have hoped for.  I met up with the guys from Kansas on the 21st of June, and we made our way to Centennial, WY.  The next day we were in the Snowy Range – which I might add, is appropriately named.  We couldn’t drive to the trail head due to the fact that the road was completely covered in snow.  Once we hiked to the actual trailhead, we never found the trail, it too was buried under 8 feet of snow!

From there we hiked to the only lakes that weren’t completely frozen over, found what little dry ground we could, and made our camp.  We were camped right next to a large bank of snow, which meant we didn’t have to go far to find water, but it made things even cooler at night.   We did some fishing, but the fish were no where to been seen, which made the $14 per day license that much more painful.  Our fishing highlight would have to be when, frustrated by a day’s worth of fishing, one of our guys decided to drop through the snow bank he was standing on right into the water – I guess he really wanted to get a fish.

The hiking at Snowy Range was fantastic, the vistas beautiful, and the stars at night were spectacular.  My only reccomendation – go in July or August.

After a couple of days in the Snowy Range we decided to head to Pole Mountain/Vedauwoo, just east of Laramie.  It was much warmer, no snow to be found, and the trials were incredible.  The scenery is incredible.  My only problem – the little trail maps they give you at the Park Headquarters are entirely reliable.  What I thought would be a 6 mile hike, ended up being about 10, as I found myself a couple of miles off course on a trail that wasn’t on the map, and had to double back to get home before dark. 

Overall, it was a great trip.  The hiking and scenery were great, but spending time with the guys, and spending time alone with God – there’s nothing better.  I’m already stocking up for next year.

July – We took the Northern Route home from Colorado, visiting the Black Hills and Mt. Rushmore.  Noah, our 16 month son, was apoplectic when he saw the buffalo in Custer State Park, they were walking right up to the car.  Rushmore was amazing, and it more than made up for the drive home across South Dakota.

As soon as we got back to Cherokee, Christi had to prepare for her Tupperware booth at the County Fair.  When the fair was done, we started right in on Vacation Bible School.  The week after VBS, we had an Adult Mission Trip to Sioux City working with Habitat for Humanity.  I’m finally able to sit and reflect on these past few weeks, and that leads me too…

The Good News…  After a vacationing in June and then a month like July, I think I’m ready for another vacation.  I feel like I’ve got too many plate spinning in the air, I’m overwhelmed by all that we’ve accomplished and all that we have left to do.  Just this week I sat down to plan my preaching schedule through Christmas – that’s right, Christmas!  When faced with the enormity of this calling, all that I am absolutely sure of is my absolute inadequacy.

But that’s exactly where I need to me for God to use me.  We often say to those who are facing difficult times, “God will never give you more than you can handle.”  I say that’s baloney.  There’s not a day goes by that I don’t face an obstacle that I know I cannot overcome left to my own devices.  I counsel families and individuals that are facing financial uncertainty, physical difficulties, terrifying diagnoses; what kind of counsel would it be to say, “God won’t give you more than you can handle.” 

The point is, we can’t handle the tough things in life by ourselves.  Our strength is not strong enough, our resources don’t run deep enough, our wisdom is not wise enough.  But God’s is. 

Psalm 62:5-12 (ESV) 
    [5] For God alone, O my soul, wait in silence,
        for my hope is from him.
    [6] He only is my rock and my salvation,
        my fortress; I shall not be shaken.
    [7] On God rests my salvation and my glory;
        my mighty rock, my refuge is God.
    [8] Trust in him at all times, O people;
         pour out your heart before him;
        God is a refuge for us.  Selah
    [9] Those of low estate are but a breath;
        those of high estate are a delusion;
    in the balances they go up;
         they are together lighter than a breath.
    [10] Put no trust in extortion;
         set no vain hopes on robbery;
         if riches increase, set not your heart on them.
    [11] Once God has spoken;
         twice have I heard this:
    that power belongs to God,
        [12] and that to you, O Lord, belongs steadfast love.
    For you will render to a man
        according to his work.
 

In God alone we have our salvation, our strength, our hope.  Do not place your hope in your own strength or resources; you’ll end up frazzled, dismayed, and worn down.  Trust in the steadfast love of God, the abundant mercy and grace of our savior Jesus Christ, and the sanctifying power of the Holy Spirit to see you through.  God will never let you down.  And that’s not just Good News, it’s Great News!

SDG