No More "Recycled Strength"
You were wearied by all your ways, but you would not say, 'It is hopeless.' You found renewal of your strength, and so you did not faint. ~Isaiah 57:10
It is a frightening thought that we can become so self-sufficient, so self-sustaining, that even in vanity and the things of our flesh, we are re-invigorated. We can muster up the zest and the zeal required for certain tasks, and actually begin to forget that our "righteousness" lacks the influence of God. While this passage may have been speaking to overt "immoral sins," such as promiscuity and idolatry, it can certainly apply to our spiritual pride-- even noble-seeming desires, clothed in false humility.
Like Samuel, we are called to minister before God first, and then before man. When we grow weary by all of our ways, let us not recycle our fleshly strength, but let us examine why we have become weary in the first place. Let us acknowledge that "it is hopeless," and surrender our ways to Jesus. Only He can truly restore our strength (Isaiah 40). Only He can fill every thing in every way.
posted by Jules @ Thursday, July 15, 2004
4 Comments:
Wow. GREAT insights, Jules. I know I've tried to pull myself up by my bootstraps a couple of times, and the scary thing is -- it works (for a while). But when it is God renewing our strength (when we wait on Him), can you ever tell the difference!
Amen, Brotha! :) "We need Him every hour...."
I'm not really wanting to be totally anonymous, but I can't make this password thing work. In my internet experience, passwords and I do not get along. This is simply another confirmation! A couple of comments on God's strength, from my experience. One was when I came home to find my home full of people for the umpteenth time. I was the young mom of three small kids at the time, and I felt like I was at the end of mtyself. I was sooo irritated at never being able to just come home to MY home....(but whose home was it anyway?...that's a whole nother story) I turned around and got back into my car full of groceries and kids and
started driving, crying and talking to God. I felt like He spoke really clearly to me that day as I drove.
He said that the same grace that enabled Jesus to go to Calvary was available to me. If He asked me to do something, there would always be enough strength for the job. The verse in KJV is how I know it is *God is able to make ALL grace ABOUND toward you that having ALL sufficiency in ALL things, may ABOUND to every good work.* I had to learn to tap into that grace for living, cuz He made it very clear that it was there for the taking!
Next thought is different entirely: I have always struggled with being a *do-aholic*. If a little is good than a LOT is better, right? WRONG! I don't know if any of you is familiar with the writings of George MacDonald but he has changed the way that I see so many things, esp. the kingdom of God. So much of what is real in the kingdom of God is unseen by others, there is no real *glory* (at least from man)in it. Spending time with an elderly broken lost perwson, or a family member who is dying, or a cousin who is an addict or an alcoholic, cleaning a friend's house....we get so stuck on having a church oriented *ministry* where it can be go go go, ra ra ra, the hidden ministries that Jesus wants us to do are not even considered at times cuz they don't make good news letters or maybe because they don't look like *ministries?*...quietly serving one another is where we may find that missing life that we are looking for, smack in the centre of His will. The rest can just be fluff (or wood hay and stubble?)that makes us tired.
Thanks, "Anonymous V..." Awesome words, and something I really needed to hear again right now.
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