Thought for the Day:
John Maxwell
in His book, ‘How High Will You Climb’ lists a four-step formula to handle
fear. Step #3 is that we “Believe God is working a miracle in your life.”
In
developing point #3, Maxwell says of Acts 4:30, “Now there was a prayer for God
to intercede on their behalf with miracles.
They realized that what had to be done would take their effort plus God’s. Notice they asked for strength first, and
then they requested that God would make up the difference. This must happen in
your life. Place the changes you seek in
attitude, thinking and behavior at the top of your prayer list. Ask God to help you do what is possible to
bring about effective change. Then ask
Him to do for you what you cannot do for yourself.”
Let’s face
it, there are many situations in life that are just beyond us. Left on our own, we would fail every time we
attempted them. So often then we throw up our hands in failure and frustration,
“I give up! This is impossible!” This isn’t a sign of weakness. This is the first step to solving our
problem: recognizing that what we hope to achieve is beyond our ability to
accomplish; and if we want it done, we’ll have to have some outside help.
Here’s where
we often go wrong and just dump everything into God’s lap. “Lord, I’ve made a mess of my life—please fix
it.” The answer is not for us to wash
our hands of the mess we are in; the answer is in seeking addition resources
and help outside of our own abilities.
We might be able to find assistance elsewhere, but for Christians, our
help comes from the Lord. It is Him we
should turn to in times of need. I
believe that God often allows us to get into situations that are over our heads
so that we are continually reminded that we need His strength, His wisdom, His
enabling so that we can accomplish what we face. If we were up for every challenge on our
own, why would we need God? We would
quickly learn to trust in ourselves and in our own abilities and powers. But since we fail and find ourselves in
situations beyond our capabilities; well, that is tailor-made for us to turn to
God.
I don’t know
about you, but I find that when everything is going well and life is easy that I
tend to get a bit slack in my relationship with God. I don’t feel the need and the intensity of
building my relationship by spending time in reading my bible and in
prayer. I should! But honestly, I don’t and I believe that most
people are just like me. So the
adversity and difficulties that we face in the world have a very beneficial
effect on us. They propel us towards
God. Instead of becoming frustrated by
those troubling times, I need to remember that they are working in my favor and
are being used for my benefit. As tough
as they may be to go through, they help shove me in God’s direction—and that is
the very best place to be!
I am
grateful that God has decided to include us in solving our own troubles. Usually we find that it is impossible for us
to take care of them on our own—we really need God. But at the same time, God chooses to include
us in the solution and not do it all by Himself for us. We do our part, as feeble as it is and God
makes us the rest, enabling us to do what would be humanly impossible to do on
our own.
At the gym,
I’ve been observing guys that are lifting an incredible amount of weight. They always use one or two spotters who stand
by ready to help when the need arises.
This guy might be able to lift the weight by themselves once or twice;
but their goal is to actually use the muscles to the point of exhaustion—that’s
when the most muscle growth occurs. So
the spotters are standing by to grab the bad and give just enough help so that
the lifter can complete his repetition.
All the while they are shouting encouragement and challenge to the guy
lifting, “Come on! Just one more! Push!
You can do it!” I envision God loading
the plates on the bar and telling us lie down under it and push for all we are
worth. He is going to be there to help
us, encourage us, and support our efforts so that we can accomplish what would
be impossible for us alone. Sometimes we
might fail…but even then we will have grown in the process.
So when
faced with a seemingly impossible challenge—don’t fear it. Face it with the best support possible. Ask God to give you the strength, wisdom and
ability that you need. And then ask Him
to supply what is lacking so you can be victorious.
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