Do You Feel Weak? He Is Stronger!

I am thinking very deeply about His mercy today.  Instead of seeing only my weakness I see His strength alive inside of me.

Last month, 2 days after I landed in Sierra Leone, I sat in a church service with my little team of  3 ladies.  The preacher happened to be the father of over 100 orphans who have completely captured my heart.  He is a man I aspire to be like.  He is my brother and friend.  He has poured out His life for the sake of the gospel in one of the poorest nations on earth.  I feel so overwhelmed with gratefulness every time God lets me step foot on a plane to go and see these precious believers again.  I have so little to offer. 

 Before his sermon he began telling the congregation that there was someone he wanted to honor.  He spoke such wonderful things about this person.  He finally told them the person he wanted to honor was me.  (WHAT??)  He spoke to them about me being someone who continued to come and visit even though most people had stopped.  He told them we were family.  Not only for a lifetime but more than that.  Forever.  FOREVER.  Then he asked me to stand so the church could pray over me. 

 All I could do is weep.  Why?  Because everything in me cried out:  I AM NOT WORTHY OF HONOR!  Goodness.  I have been trying to get the children fully sponsored for years and some of them still aren’t even getting letters.  I come with so little compared to the great needs.  I am distracted.  I don’t lead well.  I am not organized.  I just beg God to use me…to bring me back…and He does. 

 Fast forward a few weeks.  I am back home in my closet praying.  My husband comes to find me.  (Bless that man for putting up with my emotions!)  He begins to talk to me to try and find out what’s wrong.  The tears start streaming down my face and I spill out how weak I am.  How I have so little to offer.  He has heard it a hundred times. 

 I remind him that he goes to Sierra Leone and preaches the gospel and puts in water wells and does BIG things and…and…and.  All I do is let the kids pile into my little room in the corner of the orphanage and talk until the generator shuts off forcing us all to sleep.  I tag along with Pastor from village to village and beg God to use us to meet the endless sea of needs in this nation.  I ride in the car and sometimes all I can do is cry asking for God to do what I have no power to accomplish. With just a tiny bit of faith I pray simple prayers asking for the impossible.   

 I come back to America fired up with a list of things in my heart that me and Jesus will surely take care of.  I cry for about a week and then get distracted by changing diapers and teaching math and doing laundry.  I settle back into my struggle with sin and pride and walk around in weakness. 

 So my sweet, patient husband sees that this will take awhile.  He pulls up a chair, looks down at me as I sit on the floor of my closet crying and begins to encourage me. 

 He tells me things like:

“God uses your love.  He uses your conversations and impromptu bible studies and prayer times with the kids in the orphanage.  God uses your weakness.  He turns it into great strength.  He uses your not-enough and turns it into more than enough.  He uses your prayers of desperation.  Not because you are worthy of honor but because He is.  Not because you are the hero but because Jesus is.  He brings good out of your intentions not because you are good but because God is.” 

 Precious believer, why do I share this?  I want to offer you the same encouragement my husband offered me.  It is my feeling that so many in the body of Christ are not stepping out in faith to do His will because they are paralyzed by their weakness.  They are convinced that they could never be used by a holy God to make an eternal difference.  This is just not true. 

He uses the life that is willing. 

He makes the one strong who brings their weakness before Him. 

He raises the one up as a light that kneels before him in the dark. 

I am praying today for all those who feel weak to cast off their sin, embrace their weakness and rise up in the power of the risen Christ to do eternal things in His Name!  When you finally stand before Him how great will your joy be!  It will be SO GREAT when you know that you have not only ran the race HE SET BEFORE YOU but ran it well and finished strong!  I am praying today for all those who are called to things you have not stepped into.  May you respond in faithful obedience for the glory of our God!

He is the one who is Worthy!  His death demands our life!  He is the Hero!  He died so we would have power to live boldly in His strength!  Let us live like this is true!

I love you all more than my next breath.  I really do.