Dave’s Monday Blast – July 8, 2024
Greetings from the Bible Belt. I hope and pray you had a wonderful 4th of July with family and friends celebrating all that is still good about America. We had a safe journey across this great country and enjoyed our own 4th with family. God certainly did shed His grace upon us.
Take a moment to read Psalm 121 “…my help comes from the Lord, who made the heaven and earth…” and 2 Corinthians 12:9 – 11 “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.” The passage goes on to say that I would rather “boast in my weakness, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me.”
Last week we shared the first of five practices (Rhythms) that will keep us from falling apart under the pressures of life; when we are not strong enough to “push through”. Your life must be built on the teachings and application of God’s Word.
For this week:
2. Spending time alone in prayer is a priority. Prayer is your connecting point with God and an essential means of strengthening your relationship with Him. Through the discipline of prayer, we learn how to communicate with the Lord about anything and everything. (Just like all earthly relationships). When His disciples needed the strength to stand firm, Jesus told them, “Keep watching and praying, so that you do not come into temptation; the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak” (Matthew 26:41). No prayer…no power.
3. The spiritually fit see the Lord Jesus as the source of strength in their lives. We are continually tempted to forget this perspective and think our strength comes from ourselves. Yet when the Apostle Paul was suffering with what he called “a thorn in the flesh,” Christ told him, that passage we just examined from 2 Corinthians 12 affirmed that “power is perfected in weakness”. I know this makes no earthly sense but our theology affirms its truth.
4. If your life is characterized by obedience to God’s Word, you’ll be able to view troubles and afflictions as ways to strengthen your faith. Pastor Stanley comments and I agree with him: “In hindsight, I would not want to change the pain, heartache, trials, and disappointments I’ve experienced, because God used each one to grow my faith. Instead of complaining and questioning God’s love in times of hardship, we can seek to understand His purpose and trust Him. The Lord’s goal is not to remove all trials, but use them to transform us into godly people and equip us for His will (James 1:2 – 4).
5. Finally, our spiritual strength increases greatly through involvement in a local church that faithfully teaches the Bible. In (Hebrews 10:23 – 25) we learn that believers grow when connected to a church community through the hearing of the Word, love for one another, corporate worship, selfless service, and encouraging fellowship. That’s why, if possible, you should seek connection with other believers in a church body. We need each other. We were created to live in community.
Pastor Stanley comments: “Each of us is building our life on something, either God’s firm foundation, or the unstable sands of this world. What have you built your life on? No matter what you’ve done in the past or how old you are, it’s never too late to step away from the sand and start building on rock. It’s the one building project that won’t end until the day the Lord takes you home…stronger and better than you could ever have been on your own.”
